chennai when the state government honoured a couple who donated the organs of their teenaged son hitendran in 2008 the state health department did not think that it would mark the beginning of a spurt of organ donation in the state the central registry for organ donation formed on september 22 2008 has recorded 120 transplants in the last one year the highest in the country so far though states across the country have several people pledging organs tamil nadu has managed to get families of the brain dead to sign the mandatory form giving permission to harvest vital organs including heart kidneys and liver besides these there were 48 cornea 26 heart valve and one skin donation the registry even managed to touch base with neighbouring states like karnataka from where one heart and three livers were harvested and brought to the cityhowever barring one donation from stanley medical college none of the donations came from a government hospital all other donations came from brain deaths recorded in private hospitals including apollo hospitals chennai madurai meenakshi mission and christian medical college vellore according to the webpage maintained by the directorate of medical and rural health services the government hospitals have done just three liver transplants and a few kidney transplants they have no facilities to do heart transplantsregistry coordinator dr j amalorpavanathan refused to comment on why no donations were made from the government hospitals in the last one year we have improved a lot we still have a long way to go we are working towards that he saidbut government hospital doctors admit that they dont even record brain deaths the first step in the list of procedures for organ donation brain death is the irreversible end of all brain activity including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life due to loss of blood flow and oxygenation the patient is clinically dead and vital organs are supported by a life support system the transplantation of human organs act permits doctors to harvest healthy vital organs like the eyes heart kidneys lung and liver and transplant them to ailing patientsin january 8 2008 a government order from the state health department empowered the three governmentrun medical college hospitals in the city to declare brain deaths since then a series of government orders were passed by the health department to promote organ donation stanley medical college hospital was even given an exclusive fivebed ward for braindead patientsmost cases we see are accident victims and the bodies have to undergo autopsy to do a postmortem all internal organs are required what do we do if forensic experts accuse us of having destroyed evidence thats why we dont immediately record brain deaths said a senior neurologist at the government general hospital what we need is a go to tell us what we should do in such circumstances that order has been pending for more than eight months he saidother doctors complain that they do not get remuneration equivalent to those in the private