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“Family displays tremendous grit and magnanimity in their hour of grief”
New Delhi, January 03, 2019:
The gunshot victim, Ms. Archana Gupta, brought to the Emergency wing of Fortis Flt. Lt. Rajan Dhall Hospital (FHVK) at 00:18 am on New Year’s Day, 1st January, 2019 in an extremely critical condition was declared brain dead by the attending doctors on Wednesday, 2nd January 2019. Her family, displaying enormous strength and grit in their hour of grief decided to donate her kidneys. An NOC was obtained from the Delhi Police since this is a medico-legal case.
Once brought to the Emergency of FHVK Ms Gupta was attended by the doctors immediately & medical treatment administered as per protocol. The Delhi Police was informed and a medico-legal case was registered. Till yesterday, Wednesday, 2nd January, the patient continued to be in a critical state and on life support. Despite best efforts by team of doctors the patient could not be revived and was declared brain dead on January 2nd 2019. Thereafter, the proposal to donate her organs for a larger cause was discussed with the family. Post consultation, the family agreed to donate her kidneys. According to NOTTO (National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization), once a patient is declared brain dead, the hospital can approach the family for the noble cause of organ donation.
NOTTO protocol and guidelines also stipulate that any hospital has to inform it about a possible organ donation after which the government body decides as to which organ is to be sent to which hospital and specific locations based on a list of priority recipients. In this case, after the necessary approvals and the hospital-wise rota was decided by NOTTO, one kidney was sent to Apollo Hospital and the other given to FHVK.
Ms. Mangla Dembi, Facility Director, Fortis Flt. Lt. Rajan Dhall Hospital said, “We thank the donor’s family for recognizing the importance of organ donation and are deeply appreciative of them to have agreed for this magnanimous and noble act in their hour of grief and irreparable loss. It was also the clockwork precision of all internal and external medical teams which made this cadaveric donation a reality.”
“It is extremely motivating to see a gradual shift in public perception on the issue of organ donation in our country. As per available statistics, in 2015, there were 570 donations following brain death cases in the country, resulting in transplantation of a total of 1,675 organs including 1,007 kidneys, 510 livers, 110 hearts, 37 lungs, 4 pancreas and 2 small intestines. These are not small numbers in a country where, till a decade ago, organ donation was synonymous with the donation of a kidney or part of the liver from a living donor,” explained Dr Avnish Seth, Director, Fortis Organ Retrieval and Transplant (FORT), while speaking about the latest policies in place to streamline the process of Organ Donation throughout the country.
