Bangalore: Organs harvested, man lives on

DHNS

• Life after death

 

Bangalore, 02 November 2011: R Satyanarayana (50) may be dead. But, he will continue to live through five recipients of his organs. He was brought in an unconscious state to the Manipal Hospital on October 29 and confirmed brain dead on October 31.

 

A computer operator in an advertising company, he had told his wife about his wish to donate his organs and the family fulfilled it.

 

“My brother was a very sporty man and a crazy cricket fan. However, he hid the fact that he was suffering from high blood pressure from us. He was into a lot of social service and did the best service to society by donating his organs,” said Anand, Satyanarayana’s brother.  

 

Satyanarayana was admitted to the hospital after he suffered intra-cerebral bleeding (brain haemorrhage) which happens due to uncontrolled high blood pressure.

 

“A team of doctors immediately swung into action by counselling the family of the patient for cadaver donation, to which the family agreed,” said Dr Sudarshan Ballal, Medical Director, Manipal Hospital.

 

Satyanarayana’s kidneys, liver and corneas were donated to five recipients in Bangalore.  However, his heart and heart valves could not be harvested due to the age of the patient. A kidney and liver went to recipients in Manipal Hospital and another kidney was donated to a very poor patient from the Institute of Nephro-Urology, who underwent renal transplant in the wee hours of Tuesday.

 

“A teenager received the kidney. As soon as we received information, we sent a message to the chief minister’s office (CMO) for release of funds as part of ‘Kidney Sur-aksha Yojane,’ under which the patient gets free treatment and medicines for one year. We received the consent of the CMO in time,” said Dr G K Venkatesh, director of the Institute of Nephro-Urology.

 

The Human Organ Transplant Act is actively implemented in states like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, where it is compulsory to counsel family members of any brain dead patient for cadaver transplant. In Karnataka, although not many hospitals follow counselling as a mandatory procedure, a handful of them encourage cadaver transplants. This year, there have been only three cadaver transplants. The first two transplants were done in a private hospital in the City.