In a heart-warming incident, seven people received a fresh lease on life, thanks to the noble gesture by the family members of a brain-dead woman after her organs were donated to the family.
Nirmala Bhat, aged 51, hailing from Karkala, met with a road accident at Teller Road, Mather Nivas near Ravalnath Temple in Karkala on the evening of June 22. She was admitted to the Department of Neurosurgery at Kasturba Manipal Hospital ICU just past midnight on June 23. Unfortunately, she was declared brain-dead as per the protocol stipulated by the Transplantation of Human Organ Act 1994 on June 25 by four senior doctors, who also ruled out any possibility of her recovery or regaining consciousness.
Her family was then informed about her condition, who then agreed to donate her organs. Her breathing was supported by a ventilator to facilitate the harvesting of her organs, which included two heart valves, corneas, kidneys, and the liver.
As decided by the Transplantation Authority, the corneas and one kidney were donated to patients admitted to Kasturba Hospital, Manipal. The liver was harvested by surgeons from BGS Hospital, Bengaluru for an identified patient. The two heart valves were used on a patient at Narayana Hrudayalaya and the other kidney was given to a patient in Mangaluru.
This grand gesture by the family members of the deceased, coupled with the timely action by the doctors at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, ensured that seven other people, who were in desperate need of organs, were given a fresh lease of life by the organs of the brain-dead victim.
Here are some of the newspaper articles about this incident:
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https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/organs-of-53-year-old-brain-dead-woman-saves-7-lives-in-karnataka-1874489
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https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/290618/bengaluru-brain-dead-woman-saves-seven-lives.html
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https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/karkala-womans-organs-save-seven/article24265810.ece
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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangaluru/family-of-brain-dead-patient-consents-to-organ-donation/articleshow/64749872.cms