Now Reading: India sets organ transplant record at 20,138, but 90,000 await donors
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India sets organ transplant record at 20,138, but 90,000 await donors
India performed a record 20,138 organ transplants in 2025, yet nearly 90,000 patients remain on the national waiting list, according to the National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation. Tamil Nadu led among…
The Story in Brief
India performed a record 20,138 organ transplants in 2025, yet nearly 90,000 patients remain on the national waiting list, according to the National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation. Tamil Nadu led among states with 266 deceased donors in 2025, up from seven in 2008, driven by sustained awareness and state honours for donors' families. But in Telangana, one in five registered patients died waiting for an organ between 2013 and 2026, with only four or five private hospitals consistently participating in donation, the Times of India reports. Nationally, India's deceased-organ donation rate remains below one per million, against Spain's 49.
The Indian Opinion
The record 20,138 transplants is welcome news, but it masks a gap that kills thousands each year. Tamil Nadu's model is real, yet it partly depends on high road-accident deaths, a poor foundation. Telangana's one-in-five death rate among waitlisted patients is a damning indictment of hospital apathy. The real test is not raising the transplant count but raising India's deceased-donor rate from below one per million. Will the Centre mandate all trauma hospitals to report brain deaths?.
Sources (4): thehindu.com, timesofindia.indiatimes.com, timesnownews.com, timesofindia.indiatimes.com (2)
This story was synthesised by AI from the 4 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 4 sources.
