Surat: A 41-year-old brain-dead woman in Surat has donated her heart, lungs, liver, both kidneys and her eyes to save seven people with different ailments.
Ilaben Patel, a resident of Kosad village, suddenly fell unconscious and collapsed at her home at around 9 pm on September 27. Two days later doctors declared her to be brain-dead.
"After the grief-stricken family members of Ilaben contacted us, we met her sons Tanvir and Aaryan and explained the process and with their consent informed the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO) convener Dr Pranjal Modi at the Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre (IKDRC), Ahmedabad," said Nilesh Mandlewala, founder of Donate Life, an NGO engaged in cadaver donation in the city.
"We accepted the cruel destiny of our mother's untimely demise. We knew that she would not recover from that stage and so decided to pay tribute to her by donating her organs and saving seven others' precious lives," said son, Tanvir Patel, a farmer.
"Ilaben's heart was transplanted into a 15-year-girl from Delhi at Chennai's MGM Hospital while her lungs were transplanted into 61-year-old Mumbai-based woman at Chennai's Apollo hospital," Mandlewala said, adding that the organs were airlifted to Chennai in 180 minutes.
Earlier, a special green corridor was created from Venus Hospital to Surat Airport to help the organs reach the airport swiftly. A team of IKDRC harvested the two kidneys and liver which too were transported via a special green corridor to Ahmedabad.
"Police of seven districts and cities including Surat city, Surat Rural, Bharuch, Vadodara Rural, Anand, Ahmedabad rural and Ahmedabad city to facilitate the organs cover 261 km in three hours only. One kidney was transplanted into an 18-year-old youth from Surat while the other was transplanted in an 18-year-old girl from Anand. Her liver was transplanted into a 54-year-old man from Surat at IKDRC," Mandlewala said. The eyes have been donated to Surat-based Lok Drishti Bank.
"Till now, 35 hearts have been donated from Gujarat, of which 28 have been donated from Surat and South Gujarat region alone. Till now, 766 people have got a fresh lease of life with organ transplantations through Donate Life," he added.
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