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‘We’ll keep her soul alive forever’
Sixteen-and-a-half-month-old Abhilasha Rahurika became the youngest cadaver donor in the country when her parents agreed to donate her organs after she died of liver failure. Rhythma Kaul reports.
Sixteen-and-a-half-month-old Abhilasha Rahurika became the youngest cadaver donor in the country when her parents agreed to donate her organs after she died of liver failure.
What made this donation truly touching is the twist of fate that Abhilasha’s parents brought her to Delhi from Bhopal looking for a liver donor, but ended up donating her organs. They donated her kidneys and corneas, but doctors could not implant her heart as they could not find a matching recipient.
In India, parents of only five children under two years have donated organs before.
Abhilasha, who was admitted to Indraprastha Apollo Hospital for a liver transplant in early February, was declared brain dead on February 28. She could not undergo a liver transplant because she had an underlying neurological condition — Hydrocephalus or abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the cavities of the brain — that would not have allowed her to survive the surgery.
“We couldn’t save her but if through her we manage to save even one life, we’ll keep her soul alive forever,” said Rajendra Rahurikar, Abhilasha’s father, a Bhopal-based businessman.
