Kerala’s septuagenarian doctor fights a lone battle to bust organ rackets

As a court in Kerala ordered a probe into the suspected malpractices in organ transplantation in Kochi, a 75-year-old doctor hailing from Kollam district is being hailed for his fight against the mighty private hospital lobbies.

It is not a one-off fight for Dr S Ganapathy as he has been pursuing suspected anomalies in organ transplantation for quite some time. Two other cases initiated by him with regard to declaring a person brain-dead are still pending in the Supreme Court and high court and he himself is arguing the case in the courts.

Ganapathy took up the fight against dubious organ transplantations after he himself thought of donating his organs just before his heart surgery.

"When I told my daughter that my organs shall be donated if something unfortunate happens to me, she mentioned to me about huge amounts charged by hospitals from organ recipients. Thereafter, I started closely monitoring the procedures involved in it," Ganapathy told DH.

Ganapathy said he had spoken to hundreds of doctors working in the field and came to know that a racket was involved in organ transplantation. Hospitals involved in the racket took huge amounts of money from patients as hospital charges and unethically declared patients brain-dead.

"The present case of allegedly declaring 18-year-old V J Abin brain-dead by flouting norms is not an isolated incident. I feel that a large number of such instances when patients are declared brain-dead illegally could be taking place in Kerala," said Ganapathy.

Ganapathy started probing Abin's case after he met a doctor whose signature was there on an inquiry report stating that everything was done properly in Abin's case. "The doctor said she did not sign it and therefore I further probed and found the serious irregularities in the procedures," he said.

Abin, who was injured in a road accident on 2009 November 29, was not given proper treatment at Mar Baselios hospital at Kothamangalam in Ernakulam, where he was initially admitted, even though a neurosurgeon was available. Later it came to light that the neurosurgeon was earlier working with Lakeshore hospital in Kochi where Abin's organ was transplanted to a Malaysian national. Hence it seemed to be a well-planned organ business, said Ganapathy who is determined to fight the case till its logical conclusion.

A court in Kochi the other day had ordered a probe against the Lakeshore hospital in Kochi and eight doctors in connection with Abin's case.

Ganapathy himself is presenting his cases for making EEG test mandatory before declaring a person brain dead and making a video recording mandatory for all procedures.

Incidentally, the fight of Ganapathy against the alleged malpractices in organ transplant has a striking similarity with the 2018 Malayalam movie 'Joseph', which tells the story of a racket that creates road accidents to get ideal organ donors.

"Yes, the film seems to be my story though I have no connection with it," said the septuagenarian, who did his MBBS at Thiruvananthapuram government medical college and now runs his own clinic in Kollam.

Kerala had witnessed a fall in organ donation over the last few years and a section of the medical fraternity was blaming it on the film 'Joseph'. Now there are concerns that the fresh case could further prompt people to think twice before giving consent for organ donations.