E-Paper
10-month-old boy’s organs save two lives; was declared brain dead at PGIMER
Infant was declared brain dead after rolling off his cot while playing at his house in Yamunanagar on July 12; he was playing in his cot in the presence of his mother at their home in Yamunanagar; while playing, he suddenly rolled over and fell off the cot and before his mother could react, the baby had already slipped into coma due to serious head injury
Two patients suffering from end-stage liver and kidney failure got new lease on life after the family of a 10-month-old boy, declared brain dead at PGIMER, agreed to donate his organs.
On July 12, the infant, Harshit, was playing in his cot in the presence of his mother, Reena Rani, at their home in Yamunanagar. While playing, he suddenly rolled over and fell off the cot. Before his mother could react, the baby had already slipped into coma due to serious head injury.
The family rushed Harshit to a local civil hospital and then to a private hospital. However, due to a worsening prognosis, he was shifted to PGIMER on July 17. Two days later, he was declared brain dead.
As transplant coordinators at PGIMER approached the grief-stricken parents to consider organ donation, Harshit’s brave father consented.
“After the family’s approval, we secured the infant’s liver and kidneys. As cross-matching indicated no matching recipient for liver at PGIMER, we immediately got in touch with other transplant hospitals and the organ was allocated to an 11-month-old boy at ILBS, New Delhi,” said Dr Vipin Koushal, acting nodal officer, ROTTO (North).
To ensure safe and speedy transport of the harvested organ, a green corridor was created from PGIMER to technical airport, Chandigarh.
The infant’s kidneys were transplanted to a 35-year-old male patient at PGIMER itself.
“The case had its own kind of challenges. On the one hand, the donor was an infant so the retrieval was not a routine procedure and demanded extreme deftness and skill, on the other hand, the best matched recipient was a 35-year-old man. So both kidneys were transplanted to one recipient considering his age,” said Dr Ashish Sharma, head, department of renal transplant surgery, PGIMER , who along with his team, successfully accomplished the dual transplant.
