On 8 April 2005, two cadaver renal transplantations were performed successfully at the Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Kolkata. Both the recipients were discharged from the hospital with normal renal function.

The donor was a 38 year old Bengali gentleman, Manas Boy, who was involved in a road traffic accident on 5 April 2005, while returning home from work. Despite emergency neurosurgery, he suffered irreversible brain damage and was declared brain dead. His family after being counselled about organ donation, agreed to donate his organs to help save other lives.

This was a first-time effort in this part of India and the East has finally found its place on the Indian cadaver organ donation and transplantation map. What was even more heartening was the fact that the whole exercise went off smoothly.

Words would be inadequate to praise the noble gesture on the part of the family of the donor without whom none of this would have been possible. We also hope that since the first step in this field has been taken by Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, they will now move towards multi-organ retrieval and transplantation.