NewZNew (Chandigarh/Mohali) : Concerted campaigns by the government, medical fraternity and various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to encourage organ donations have started showing results as more and more grieving families of brain dead people are coming forward to donate bodies or specific organs like heart, eyes, lungs, liver, kidney, etc of the deceased person.
Two kidney failure patients at Fortis Hospital Mohali were the beneficiaries of one such donation from the body of a brain dead youth at the PGI Chandigarh on Saturday.
The 35 year old male, who was the victim of a road accident, will live on in the hearts of the people to whom he has donated his kidneys. His family has contributed to the noble cause of donating organs and gifting life. The National Organ Tissue and Transplant Organisation had allotted the kidneys of this person to Fortis Hospital Mohali. The whole process would not have been possible without the assistance provided by the Regional Organ Tissue Transplant Organization. Both kidneys of the brain dead youth, a resident of Panchkula in Haryana, whose body was donated to PGI by his family, were offered to Fortis Hospital Mohali by the PGI authorities as the blood group of the brain dead youth matched those of two patients awaiting kidney transplant in Fortis.
Consequently, a team from organ transplant unit of Fortis Mohali led by Dr Priyadarshi Rajan, Kidney Transplant Surgeon, and comprising Interventionist Dr Ashwini Sharma, Senior Neprologist Dr HJS Gill and Nephrologist Dr Amit Sharma rushed to the PGI this morning to harvest the organs. After successfully harvesting, the kidneys were rushed to Mohali in the fully equipped Fortis Hospital ambulance. The Mohali Police played a major role in escorting the Fortis ambulance through the traffic and providing a smooth transit for the organ carrying ambulance. Within 15 minutes the organs, meticulously packed in special boxes, reached Fortis Hospital Mohali and were rushed to the operation theatre where the two recipients – a 45 year old woman and a 47 year old male had been evaluated for compatibility and were kept ready for the transplant operations to begin. The operations were successfully conducted by the evening.
According to Mr Abhijit Singh, Facility Director, Fortis Hospital Mohali, “Fortis Hospital Mohali is truly motivated and strongly believes in Organ Transplant. The hospital encourages organ transplant and in the past on two occasions we have been able to persuade families of people who were declared brain dead in the hospital to donate their organs. On both occasion, on receiving the consent of the families, the patients were shifted to the PGI for harvesting of organs. This is, however, the first time that we are receiving harvested organs from the PGI.”
“We are eternally grateful to the families which despite their hour of grief have kept humanity above all other considerations and agreed to donate organs of their brain dead kin. So many patients in hopeless situations have been gifted a new lease of life with such noble gestures and we hope that more and more people will come forward to do the same in the name of humanity,” Mr Abhijit added.
He thanked the PGI authorities, the UT Chandigarh Administration and the Mohali district administration for making the harvesting of the organs and their passage from PGI to Fortis Hospital Mohali in the shortest possible time a smooth affair.
Commenting on this, Mohali senior superintendent of police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said, “We are happy to make a small contribution to this noble cause, and will continue to do so in the future as well.”
