Here is a moving story of a Professor of Urology whose death from cardiac arrest gave a renewed lease of life to his wife who was suffering from chronic renal failure and was on haemodialysis.

Dr. A. K. Annamalai (65), one of the leading lights of Urology in Bangalore suffered a cardiac arrest following which he was declared “Brain Death”. His wife Dhanalakshmi (50) had also been hospitalized with complications related to chronic renal failure. Dr. Annamalai had always expressed his wish to donate his organs. The team of nephrologists, headed by Dr. S. Sundar, which was treating Dhanalakshmi, felt that the kidneys of the husband could be transplanted to his wife if the family was willing. The family readily consented to the request. Transplant surgeon, Dr. Ajit Huilgol decided to transplant both kidneys into the wife as it was felt that the donor was elderly with atherosclerosis and the combined nephron mass would help.  And it worked! The transplant was successfully performed and Mrs. Dhanalakshmi is alive and well – all because of the greatest gift that a husband could ever give his wife, the gift of life.

The Medical Director of Mallya Hospital, Dr. Nandakumar Jairam left one with some food for thought when he said, “Cadaver transplants are here to stay and are preferred in the West. In India we had a problem, because of the definition of death. But with the concept of brain death being accepted, such transplants will become more popular, or else these organs will be wasted”.