Organ donations have come down steadily in Tamil Nadu over the last four years and worsened during the pandemic, but the state continues to make best use of the organs it has received as donations, said state health secretary J Radhakrishnan at a function organised to honour donor families and medical teams involved in transplant surgeries.

Health minister Ma Subramanian gave away Awards to senior transplant surgeons, nurses and counsellors in government and private hospitals. From about 185 donations in 2016, the number of donations came down to 127 in 2019 and 55 in 2020, according to data published byTRANSTAN, a state registry that networks with hospitals and registries across the state. “In the last five years, there has been an increase in the number of people heart, lungs and pancreas being utilised. In case hearts can’t be used, doctors harvest valves,” said director of medical Services Dr S Gurunathan.