Mrs. B. Vijalakshmi Raj (68 years) was a multifaceted personality –a social activist, a juvenile court judge and editor of a monthly magazine called “Anaamika”- who gave her best to all the roles she chose to play and when she died, that spirit of giving continued with her wish that “somebody should gain “from organs even after her death.

            Mrs. Vijayalakshmi suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and was admitted to safe Hospital, Vijayawada, on August 8, 2003. She was declared brain dead on August 12 keeping her wishes in mind, her husband Mr. Govindharajulu Naidu and other family members expressed their desire to donate her organs. MOHAN Foundation, Hyderabad coordinated the retrieval with Global Hospital, Hyderabad after having identified a recipient there with end stage kidney failure (a 54-year-old chief engineer from the Military Engineering Service).

A team of doctors from Global Hospital rushed to Vijayawada and retrieved the kidneys and a liver while a team from L.V. Prasad Eye institute retrieved the corneas. However, there was apprehension expressed about the condition of the kidneys as the donor was aged, hypertensive, and diabetic. Normally, such organs are not ideal for transplantation but this was a catch-22 situation where there was a donated-suboptimal organ on the one side and long transplant waiting list of kidney failure patients coupled with a paucity of cadaver organs on the other. Fortunately, a biopsy reveled that age and disease had not done irretrievable damage to the kidneys and the doctor decides to transplant both the sub-optimal kidneys into the recipient to meet the renal requirements. This was the first time that double kidney transplantation was done one a single recipients in Andhra Praesh, all thanks to this very “giving” person-  Mrs.B. Vijayalakshmi Raj