Organ donation by two changes 8 lives

Eight people, including a 25-year-old girl, got a new lease of life in the Capital after two families donated their mothers' organs within a span of 15 days last month. Rhythma Kaul reports.

Eight people, including a 25-year-old girl, got a new lease of life in the Capital after two families donated their mothers' organs within a span of 15 days last month.

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On July 18, Shashank and Neha Jain (names changed) expressed their willingness to donate the organs of their 65-year-old mother, when doctors treating her informed them she wouldn't survive.

After she was pronounced brain dead, doctors at the local hospital where she was admitted contacted Medanta - The Medicity Hospital in Gurgaon, as it was not certified to harvest organs for donation.

The hospital contacted MOHAN Foundation, a non-governmental organisation working to promote organ donation in the country since 1997, to counsel the family. The patient was shifted to Medanta on July 20 and her corneas and liver were harvested. The heart and the kidneys, however, were not found fit for donation.

The liver was transplanted to a 70-year old recipient from Delhi who had been on the waiting list for the last eight months. The transplant was performed by the Medanta liver transplant team on the same day. The corneas were retrieved by Dr Shroff's Charity Eye Hospital.

The woman's elder daughter and son-in-law both being doctors, offered to donate her organs.

"My wife would have wanted this," said the donor's grieving husband. He shared how his wife had been desperate to donate her father's corneas, but had been unable to do so since there had been considerable delay in retrieving them.

"We are grateful to get this opportunity to do something good in this unfortunate moment," he added.