Mumbai, November 29: It was a courageous decision that amazed the doctors at Jaslok Hospital the parents of an 11-year-old girl, pronounced brain dead on Friday, expressed a wish to donate her organs, making her the youngest such donor in the city.
Residents of Nallasopara, the girl’s family donated the kidney to a 50-year-old patient suffering from kidney failure and who had been on dialysis for over 10 years. The other kidney was transported to Harkissondas Hospital, where another patient awaited it.
“There have been 33 deceased kidney donations in the city so far this year. But the girl is the youngest deceased kidney donor in the city,” confirmed Dr Vatsala Trivedi of the Zonal Transplant Co-ordination Committee (ZTCC-Mumbai).
“The parents, in spite of the severe emotional trauma involved, agreed to donate the organs of their daughter. The recipient on whom I transplanted the kidney had been on the ZTCC’s waiting list for kidney for ten years. Their brave decision has saved the lives of two patients,” said Dr Rushi Deshpande, consultant nephrologist, Jaslok Hospital, who performed the two-and-half hour surgery to transplant a healthy kidney in the wee hours of Saturday.
In a strange twist of fate, the 11-year-old had been suffering from Congenital Hepatic Fibrosis (CHF) – an extremely rare condition that affects the liver, and for which, a liver transplant would have been the only option. “On November 26, the child had lost consciousness after falling down from a chair. She was rushed to a hospital in Nallasopara and was then transferred to Jaslok,” said Admiral SM Mohanty, medical director of the hospital.
However, she had suffered from bleeding in the brain, and was pronounced brain dead in 24 hours. “While her mother was shattered, the child’s father and other relatives approached us saying they wanted to donate her organs. We took their consent – the first time that we’ve taken consent from parents of such a young donor – and performed the transplant,” said Mohanty.
–Agencies–