28 January 2011
Mumbai, India
First Cadaver Donation At Naval Hospital
A defence personnel’s family from Colaba saved three lives by donating the organs of its 16–year–old son who was declared brain dead. Two patients suffering from kidney failure and another from liver failure received Rajnish Rana Singh’s ‘gift of life’.
The teenager, Rajnish, was admitted to INS Asvini, the naval hospital at Colaba, over a month ago because of complications arising out of brain tumour. He slipped into coma a few weeks ago and was declared brain dead at 10 pm on Tuesday, said defence spokesperson Manohar Nambiar.
Rajnish was the only son of sepoy Ranjit Singh, who is currently posted at a defence installation near Delhi and has two daughters.
This is the first–ever cadaver donation registered at INS Asvini. The city usually records 20–odd cadaveric donations in a year. While INS Asvini’s donation is the second this year, the year’s first donation was at H N Hospital in the first week of January. The H N Hospital donor’s family had donated two of his kidneys.
"Cadaver donation would help many patients with endstage organ disease. We hope the donation at our hospital will snowball into a movement,’’ said Dr M S Murthy, the nephrologist with INS Asvini.
One of the donated kidneys was given to a patient in INS Asvini itself while the second to a patient at Jaslok Hospital. "Both the recipients are doing well," said Dr Sujata Patwardhan, who heads the Zonal Transplantation Coordination Committee (ZTCC) that coordinates cadaveric donations in the city.
The liver was donated to a patient registered at KEM Hospital in Parel. The city has, so far, registered 231 organ donations since 1997. In 2010, 18 kidneys and six livers were donated, said ZTCC officials.
Transplant surgeon Dr V Trivedi said it is scientifically sound to accept organ donations from brain tumour patients who slip into brain death. "Patients with any other cancer are not eligible to donate their organs. Cadaver donations usually occur among persons with brain tumour, stroke or accident victims,’’ said Dr Murthy.
In India, there is shortage of cadaver donations and these make up barely 10% of all organ donations across the country.
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