Donor Amit bids adieu to this world in his prime but kindles Hope in 4 with Organ & Tissue Donation at PGIMER

Chandigarh : April 13 : PGIMER once again witnessed someone’s terrible loss becoming a ‘gift of life’ for others as the brave heart donor family of 27 year old Amit from village Tipra, Kalka, Panchkula, amid their own heart wrenching tragedy and kindled hope in four patients with the transplantation of kidneys and corneas here at PGIMER Chandigarh.
Paying rich tributes to the donor Amit, Prof. Jagat Ram, Director PGIMER said, “We are overwhelmed by the ‘spirit of giving’ of the donor family as they turned their own misfortune into blessing for many others. I also commend the efforts of entire PGIMER team involved in the process for translating the donor family’s noble wish into ‘reality’ despite confronted with multiple challenges in the thick of COVID with cases surging at a much faster pace.”
Amit’s life was cut short suddenly as he accidentally had a fall from the stairs at his home that caused him fatal head injuries on the night of 6th April. After the mishap, Amit was immediately rushed to civil hospital, sector 6, Panchkula. Then being referred to PGIMER, Amit was shifted here in PGIMER the next day on 7th April.
As the ill luck would have it, all the efforts to save Amit proved ineffective with his condition worsening and he was put on life support. However, nothing could reverse the precarious condition of Amit and after five days’ of struggle between life and death, Amit was declared brain-dead on 10th April after following the protocols of THOA. .
“Everything came crashing down due to untimely death of my young son’’ recalled Subhash Chander, grief-stricken father of Amit. “And then, transplant coordinators at PGIMER talked to us about organ donation. The idea of having a chance to save someone else’s life made sense to us, even though we didn’t have the heart to take Amit off life support,” said Subhash Chander.
Still in shock, the bereaved mother Neelam Kapoor,said, “Destiny has played havoc with us. It was so sudden, in five days he has gone, and we are all left empty handed, not able to do anything. Though it was an extremely tough call, but still we always believed that it was the right thing to do. Nobody can understand more than us what it means losing a son so we definitely did not want anyone else to have to go through this excruciating pain.”
After the family consented for organ donation, all the concerned departments swiftly got into action.… the intensive care unit maintained the donor, the labs did the cross-matching, Nephrology department worked up the matching recipients, the transplant teams retrieved the kidneys from the donor Amit and transplanted to two terminally ill renal failure patients Apart from the kidneys, the corneas of the donor were also harvested, which on transplantation, restored the eyesight of two other patients.
Prof. H.S.Kohli, Head, Deptt. of Nephrology, PGIMER stated as shared about the recipients, “The donor’s family’s generous gesture has given a second lease of life to the two recipients as both of them have been suffering from “end-stage debilitating kidney ailment” and dependent on kidney dialysis for long. Their chances of survival without transplant were bleak.”
Detailing about the procedure Prof. Ashish Sharma, Head, Deptt. of Renal Transplant Surgery, said, “There are challenges involved in doing transplant in COVID-19 days. Special precautions are taken to proceed with the transplant. The deceased donor as well as both recipients are tested and confirmed to be negative for Covid 19.”
Prof. Sharma further said, “In the post-op period, the staff is rostered in such a way so that only a limited healthcare workers are in contact with the recipients and no visitors is allowed. Both patients are now recovering well and will be discharged soon.”
Sharing about how deceased organ donation programme is beng taken forward in PGIMER even in COVID-19 pandemic, Prof. Vipin Koushal, Nodal Officer, ROTTO PGIMER said, “We bow to the donor families for their generosity as their noble consent enabled us save 31 lives of terminally ill organ failure patients with the transplantation of 28 kidneys, 2 livers, 1 heart, 1 pancreas and restore the sight of 113 corneal blind with 113 cornea transplantation in last one year since April 2020 alongside battling with the unprecedented challenge of COVID 19. So neither the magnanimity of the donor families knows any bounds nor the commitment of PGIMER team lets any hurdle come in their way.”