When six-year-old Zainab approached Dr J Amalorpavanathan, the state convener for
the cadaver transplant programme, the first question she asked was when she would die.Two years on, the name of the hero who saved her a five-year-old, whose kidney lives on in Zainab was printed on the wall of a corporate hospital in the city.
The donor's parents weren't present at Tuesday's meeting in Fortis Malar hospital, but their sentiment was echoed by Deepika and Sadasivam, who too, like the couple, lost and gained lost a person they loved and gained the gratitude of a stranger's life they saved.
A Yadav, an Iyer, a Reddy, a Kapadia all of them came together on the wall comprising 36 names after giving life through their deaths. Deepika scanned the board to find the star with her sister Anuradha's name below. Her eyes welled up when she finally spotted it. “It was my mother's wish to donate her organs,“ said Deepika, quietly. She lost her 33-yearold sister in December, 2014, to a brain hemorrhage. “My mother is still grieving but we are also happy to know that a part of her is alive in someone, somewhere,“ said Deepika.
Tamil Nadu has the highest number of cadaver organ donations in the country with organs being harvested from around 1,200 people who were declared brain dead since 1995. Doctors say families of organ donors are often the unsung heroes as they are rarely compensated for their gesture.
“Just watching them come forward to donate when they are still grieving is such a humbling experience for all of us,“ said Dr Amalorpavanathan, who was among a group of senior transplant surgeons who congregated to honor donor families.
“It's a philosophical journey of sorts for us to see extreme grief on one side and joy on the other,“ he said. Little Zainab, he added with a smile, still writes letters to him from her native town in Uttar Pradesh, thanking doctors and the family of the child who gave her a new lease of life.
The donor's parents weren't present at Tuesday's meeting in Fortis Malar hospital, but their sentiment was echoed by Deepika and Sadasivam, who too, like the couple, lost and gained lost a person they loved and gained the gratitude of a stranger's life they saved.
A Yadav, an Iyer, a Reddy, a Kapadia all of them came together on the wall comprising 36 names after giving life through their deaths. Deepika scanned the board to find the star with her sister Anuradha's name below. Her eyes welled up when she finally spotted it. “It was my mother's wish to donate her organs,“ said Deepika, quietly. She lost her 33-yearold sister in December, 2014, to a brain hemorrhage. “My mother is still grieving but we are also happy to know that a part of her is alive in someone, somewhere,“ said Deepika.
Tamil Nadu has the highest number of cadaver organ donations in the country with organs being harvested from around 1,200 people who were declared brain dead since 1995. Doctors say families of organ donors are often the unsung heroes as they are rarely compensated for their gesture.
“Just watching them come forward to donate when they are still grieving is such a humbling experience for all of us,“ said Dr Amalorpavanathan, who was among a group of senior transplant surgeons who congregated to honor donor families.
“It's a philosophical journey of sorts for us to see extreme grief on one side and joy on the other,“ he said. Little Zainab, he added with a smile, still writes letters to him from her native town in Uttar Pradesh, thanking doctors and the family of the child who gave her a new lease of life.
Source: TOI
Giving life to someone is always a good thing.
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