Times of India
03 July 2010
Chennai, India

On Tuesday, when 49–year–old G Rajendran, a school teacher in Tiruvannamalai, was on a ventilator following a road accident, his 18–year–old son got admission to the Thanjavur Medical College through the single window medical counselling. On Wednesday, Rajendran’s wife, also a teacher, was told that her husband, on the waitlist for renal transplant since November last year, was brain dead. A day later she signed the papers permitting doctors at the First Med Hospital on Poonamallee High Road to harvest his liver and heart valves for transplanting them.

Rajendran, a diabetic, developed diabetic nephropathy that led to renal failure. In November last year, doctors at the Ramana Maharishi Rangammal Hospital in Tiruvannamalai began dialysis on him and he was put on the waitlist for a transplant at the Stanley Medical College Hospital. "He was my patient. He seemed fine and ready to undergo a transplant," says nephrologist Dr Raja Mahesh of First Med Hospital.

On June 21, Rajendran met with a road accident while riding home from school on a scooter. He was admitted to the Christian Medical College Hospital in Vellore and then shifted to First Med Hospital. "He had multiple brain haemorrhage and was not responding to treatment," Dr Mahesh said. His family members hoped he would wake up but when they realised he wouldn’t they signed the papers for transplant. "Even before our grief counselor could broach the subject they agreed to donate the organs," he said.

The state cadaver transplant registry was alerted. "His kidneys or heart could not be used. So the heart valves, liver and eyes were harvested. While doctors at the Madras Medical Mission harvested heart valves, the liver was harvested by a team at Apollo Specialty Hospital led by Dr Anand K Khakar."