Chandigarh: 23-year-old brain dead youth’s organs save seven lives

On January 3, Rajesh became unconscious due to a grievous head injury after a sudden fall at his home; the family first rushed Rajesh to GMSH, Sector 16, from where he was referred to PGIMER due to an extremely critical condition

The organs of a 23-year-old man, who was declared brain dead at PGIMER on January 12 following an accident, gave a new lease of life to five terminally ill organ failure patients, one at New Delhi, another at Gurugram and three more at PGIMER.

The youth could not be revived after getting critically injured and was declared brain dead at PGIMER, Chandigarh, on January 1. (AFP)

Two more were given the gift of sight through this selfless act of organ donation, thereby impacting seven lives in all.

On January 3, Rajesh became unconscious due to a grievous head injury after a sudden fall at his home. The family first rushed Rajesh to GMSH, Sector 16, from where he was referred to PGIMER due to an extremely critical condition. But the patient could not be revived and was declared brain dead on January 1.

The transplant coordinators at PGIMER approached Mandodri Devi, the bereaved mother, to request if she could consider organ donation. Displaying immense grit, the resolute mother consented for organ donation.

Dr Vipin Koushal, medical superintendent, PGIMER and nodal officer, ROTTO (North), said, “As the cross matching indicated no matching recipient for heart and lungs in PGIMER, we immediately got in touch with other transplant hospitals to explore options for matching recipients, and finally the heart was allocated to a 30-year-old male patient admitted in Army R & R Hospital, New Delhi, and lungs were allocated to a 55-year-old man admitted at Medanta, Gurugram, with the intervention of NOTTO.”

“To ensure safe and speedy transport of the harvested organs, two Green Corridors had to be created on January 12 in conjunction with the retrieval timings. The first one was created from PGIMER to Technical Air Port Chandigarh at around 4:15 am for the transportation of retrieved heart and second one was created at 4:50 am from PGIMER to International Air Port to enable safe passage for the transport of lungs for the onward flight.”

The harvested liver was transplanted to a 60-year-old male recipient at PGIMER. A 26-year-old male patient turned lucky to get simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplant and the second kidney was transplanted to a 32-year-old male, both admitted in PGIMER.

Before the transplants, both the matching recipients were suffering from the last stage of debilitating kidney ailment and had been dependent on dialysis for long.

The retrieved corneas, on transplantation, restored the sight of two corneal blind patients here at PGIMER.