Mumbai:
Sushita Rai, a 21-year-old girl who died on her birthday gave five ailing patients her organs as a parting gift. On April 12, Sushita, a student of Sadhna College in suburban Bhandup was returning home with her family friend after her birthday celebrations when their car met with an accident at around 11:30 pm and was rushed to nearby Wockhardt hospital but later shifted to Aastha nursing home where she was declared brain stem dead.
"But her 18-year-old brother Sumeet mustered courage and told the family about her wish to donate organs," Sushita's paternal uncle Uday Shetty said. Her parents said they wanted to keep her alive by donating her organs. Sudhakar Rai, her father said, "she often told her college friends and her brother that she wants to donate organs but only to the poor patients not the rich. We donated the organs so that her soul rest in peace."
She was transferred to KEM medical intensive care unit on Sunday where she was put under battery of tests to certify as brain dead. Apnea test and gag reflex test was conducted on her and repeated after six hours, Dr Sanjay Swain, associate professor Urology at KEM hospital said.
Dr Sanjay Oak, dean of the hospital told media that it was the first cadaver at KEM Hospital in the last 12 years. "Cadaver transplants will be a priority for us now onwards," Oak said. He further added, "when we got this body, all of us from KEM and the private hospitals worked like a team."
Dr Sujata Patwardhan, head of Urology department, who conducted the transplant, said they had identified five brain dead patients last month but the families of all of them refused to donate organs.
The organs were retrieved on Sunday by a team of doctors from KEM, Jaslok and BSES Hospital. It took more than six hours to retrieve liver, two kidneys and two corneas. While liver was transplanted to a 45-year-old male at Jaslok hospital who was waiting for 8 months, the two kidneys were given to two different patients - 37-year-old female patient at KEM hospital who has been waiting for four years and 34-year-old male patient to BSES hospital in Andheri who had already undergone two unsuccessful transplants earlier. The corneas will be donated to the eye bank, Oak said.
"We are seeing an increasing number of families who are self-motivated. When they learn of brain death, they ask us how they can donate. Now, we have to be ready and evolve better strategies to ensure that cadaver donations can be efficiently facilitated," Dr Sanjay Nagral from Jaslok, who retrieved Sushita's liver and transplanted it to his patient said.