Odisha: Bidding farewell to someone we love is indeed one of the most difficult things to do in life, and to think of parting with their vital organs is even more difficult in a country where awareness on organ donation is comparatively low.
But, fighting all odds, an illiterate couple from Bhanjanagar area of Ganjam district in Odisha has set an example.
Donating the living organs of their dying son required extraordinary courage.
22-year-old Suraj was the eldest son of Babuli Sethi and Mita Sethi.
He lived with his parents and was employed at a cloth manufacturing company in Surat.
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Life for them was as ordinary as it could have been, until the fateful day of October 29, 2019, when Suraj met with a tragic road accident.
He was immediately taken to a hospital, but despite all efforts of the doctors, they could not revive him.
The news came as a shock to Suraj's family. He was declared brain dead by the doctors.
"There is no hope of Suraj coming back to life," the doctors said.
But since all his other organs were perfectly normal and functioning. The doctors eventually advised the parents to donate his organs to people who need them.
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It was certainly the most difficult decision to make for Suraj's parents; giving pieces of their son to people they do not even know.
Their heart did not agree to this initially but they also wanted their son to live on, even if it meant through different people.
Soon after the parents agreed to donate their son's organs, a team of doctors conducted a surgery on him and preserved his vital organs.
His heart was immediately transported to Mumbai by an air ambulance. Within 69 minutes of the surgery, his heart was transplanted into a woman patient's body.
Within hours, his other organs including his liver, kidneys and eyes were transplanted into other people's bodies.
The receivers were certainly thankful to Suraj and his family; for his organs and for their courageous gesture respectively.
It is worth mentioning that Suraj's parents are illiterate but have done something that no level of education could make someone brave enough to do.
Donating Suraj's organs to other people, in a way, made him immortal. His heart beating through someone else has made him alive even if it is in bits and pieces.
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