The COVID-19 pandemic failed to dampen the ‘spirit of giving’ of two brave-heart donor families from neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana as their gesture of organ donation of their demised dear ones gave new lease of life to four and restored the sight of four more with the transplantation of kidneys and corneas at PGIMER. A 45 years old Sikh Granthi Gurinder Singh, a resident of village Phalsanda Rangran, district Kurukshetra, Haryana had on October 28 met with an accident when he was returning from his late night duty with his son on a motor bike and rammed into a car coming from the opposite side.
Gurinder was hit badly and had a severe head injury and was immediately rushed to a private hospital in Kurukshetra from where he was referred to PGIMER in a critical condition. But his condition kept deteriorating day by day and he was declared brain dead following the protocols of THOA 1994 on October 30.
After the grief counselling by transplant coordinators, his wife Swarn Kaur expressed her desire to donate multiple organs for therapeutic purpose to save life of terminally ill patients which led to giving life to two and restoring the sight of two more after the transplantation of harvested kidneys and corneas of donor Gurinder Singh.
PGIMER witnessed an equally gracious gesture by another family from a village in Derabassi, Punjab whose tragedy was also beyond words as their 50 years old male family member became victim to a road accident, sustaining severe head injuries on October 14. The family ran from pillar to post in the hope of saving their dear one as they rushed the victim to Civil Hospital, Dera Bassi, then to GMCH, Sector 32 and finally to PGIMER.
The victim could not be saved from his irretrievable condition and was declared brain dead on October 21. The family took the brave decision of organ donation after they were counselled about the noble cause and gave life to two and sight to two more with the transplantation of retrieved kidneys and corneas of the donor.
Expressing gratitude to the donor families, Prof Jagat Ram, Director PGIMER, said, “It is an extremely hard decision for anyone to make when one is put in that situation, but donor families like them definitely instil a sense of confidence not only in the in-waiting recipients fighting a losing battle but also for the Cadaver Organ Donation Programme.”
Prof Ashish Sharma, Head, Department of Renal Transplant Surgery, elaborating about the challenges involved in transplant due to COVID 19 pandemic, said, “Special precautions are taken to proceed with the transplant. The deceased donor as well as both recipients are tested and confirmed to be negative for COVID 19. In the post-op period, the staff is rostered in such a way that only limited healthcare workers are in contact with both the recipients and no visitors are allowed. All the recipients who underwent transplant have been on dialysis for the last few years and remaining on dialysis also carries risk of contracting Coronavirus as they need to travel to dialysis centres at least twice a week.”