Delhi: 15-year-old accident victim saves 6 lives with her organs

By Shalini Bhardwaj
New Delhi [India], August 23 : A 15-year-old girl who died in a gruesome road accident on August 15, saved the lives of six people, including a woman from Bihar's Bhagalpur with her organs.
The heart transplant on a 32-year-old woman was conducted at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr RML Hospital, here on Monday.
Laxmi Devi, a patient with terminal heart failure following childbirth was suffering from breathlessness severe enough to curtail even routine daily activities, the hospital said in a press statement.
Devi was evaluated at RML Hospital by a team of cardiologists led by Dr Ranjith Nath and Dr Praveen Agarwal who advised a heart transplant following which she was registered with the National Organ transplantation Organization (NOTTO).
According to the hospital's press statement, the donor girl, Basu, had met with an accident on August 15 and was admitted to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh with a severe head injury.
On August 20, at about 9:00 am, the girl was declared brain dead and was kept on a ventilator to sustain her organs.
After counselling by the transplant coordinator at the Chandigarh hospital, her father, Ajo Manji, a daily wage labourer, came forward to donate all organs of Basu to needful persons suffering from end-stage diseases and awaiting healthy organs to have a new life.
On the morning of August 21, the NOTTO released an alert about the availability of a donor's heart at the PGIMER-Chandigarh.
A team of cardiac surgeons from RML hospital and AIIMS led by Dr Narender Singh Jhajhria reached PGI Chandigarh the same evening and harvested the donor heart which was then expeditiously flown to New Delhi within 2 hours by dint of a green corridor arranged by PGIMER, Chandigarh, Delhi and Chandigarh police departments Airlines Manager of Alliance Air, the release stated.
This is the historic and successful first heart transplant surgery at a Central government-run hospital in New Delhi, the statement read.
Speaking to ANI, Dr Nandini Duggal, Director and MS, RML Hospital said, "It's a big achievement and it is a history indeed which has been created by RML doctors here and it was a very difficult task but thanks to our dedicated teams because a great team effort and departments of CTVS cardiology, blood bank, Nodal officers for transplant, our transplant coordinator, then many other services from Chandigarh, from Delhi airport authorities, AIIMS, all they worked for hand in hand to make this successful."
Another DR from the team, Dr Vijay Grover, said, "This 32-year-old woman had been suffering for 7-8 years before she underwent the longest surgery, which is now normal. She was initially diagnosed with narrated cardiomyopathy when she was a child. The organ donor was a 15-year-old car accident victim who helped save six lives by giving up her body parts."