A 14-month-old donor from Surat became Gujarat’s youngest donor of heart and kidneys, donating it to two persons. The donor, who hailed from Mubarakpur village in Siwan district of Bihar, was declared brain dead after he suffered a haemorrhage and multiple skull fractures. The hospital contacted Donate Life, a Surat-based NGO, to counsel the parents to donate their son’s organs. The family showed courage to rise above the loss of their son’s life and donate his organs giving a new lease of life to two children.

His heart was transported via green corridor, through a commercial flight covering a distance of 331.7 km in one hour and 25 minutes. A three-and-a-half-year-old girl from Navi Mumbai, who had been waiting for a heart transplant since she was two, finally had a reason to celebrate after she had a successful heart transplant. Her mother went on to say that their family even tried creating awareness through social media to get a heart for their daughter. The donor’s kidneys were harvested at the Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre (IKDRC) and were transplanted to a 15-year-old boy from Ahmedabad who was suffering from acute renal failure and was on dialysis for 10 years.

Dr Dhaval Naik, heart-transplant specialist at CIMS hospital in Ahmedabad, said that the donor had become the youngest heart donor in Gujarat. “It is very difficult when it comes to children. Explaining to the family becomes tricky. This also stresses on the need to have more people working towards paediatric transplants and spreading awareness about it,” said Dr Naik. “We salute the brave parents of the 14-month-old boy from Surat, for giving consent to donate the organs of their loved one,” the hospital’s zonal director Dr S Narayani said.