Even as only a few civic run hospitals contribute to the city's cadaver donation pool, the Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC) has recently written to the Maharashtra government to sanction funds to enhance the prospects of cadaver donation in the city. They are, however, awaiting funds from the government to the tune of Rs. 65,000 to meet their monthly expenditure.

ZTCC coordinates, monitors and supervises the cadaver organ transplant programme. It is also responsible for activities of central tissue typing laboratory and drug bank. It is currently spearheading the promotion and awareness of organ donation with a view to help organ failure patients in overcoming their ailment.

ZTCC has sent several proposals asking the state to provide funds since 1995, but to no avail. Apart from the funds required, an official from ZTCC explained that there is a need for more doctors and staff to be involved in the process of organ transplantation. Experts opine that the state's involvement should go beyond insisting on hospitals to report brain stem deaths.

Of all civic-run hospitals, including three tertiary and 18 peripheral, KEM Hospital was the only one to identify 50 brain stem deaths in 2014, while Sion Hospital managed to do four despite handling the highest number of trauma cases in the city. Identifying and reporting such patients to the state was made mandatory in 2012.

There were reported 41 cadaver donations in the city last year. Two came from KEM Hospital, Parel. BYL Nair, Mumbai Central, did not identify a single brain dead patient. The state-run 170-year-old JJ Hospital, Byculla, has never carried out a cadaver donation.

Though Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to hire dedicated transplant coordinators, there remains a challenge of converting brain stem deaths to successful organ donations more so as public hospitals primarily cater to a section of people who are unaware about organ donation. It also gets tougher from the medico-legal perspective as hospitals also deal with a lot of accident cases. There are also situations when relatives of the patients misread the doctor's intentions when recommended for organ donation.