Karu Singh (45), an autorickshaw driver from Bihar, was declared brain dead at AIIMS on July 1. His family decided in favour of an organ donation and two days later, his heart, liver and kidneys have already been transplanted to four different patients.
Singh had travelled from Bihar to Delhi on June 30 to confirm a wedding match for his daughter. According to AIIMS spokespersons, he suffered a fall from the terrace at a relative’s house where he was sleeping that night. After being rushed to the AIIMS Trauma Centre, he was declared brain stem dead on the afternoon of July 1.
His family agreed to donate his organs, and the organs were retrieved on July 2. His heart has been transplanted in a 40-year-old woman, his liver in a 62-year-old man, one of his kidneys to a 56-year-old woman in AIIMS and the other had been allocated by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation to a 37-year-old woman in Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. In addition to this, both his corneas have also been banked at AIIMS’s National Eye Bank.
“The huge gap in the demand and availability of organs can be abated only by such righteous decisions taken by the grieving family even in their toughest moments. The courage and selflessness that they displayed at a crucial time is truly commendable and it reiterates one’s faith in humanity,” said Dr Arti Vij, Head of the Organ transplant and retrieval organisation at AIIMS Delhi.