Ramnath Thakur died in a road accident
Minutes before leaving home on Sunday, 58-year-old Ramnath Thakur informed his family that his friend needed some help, and that he would return in an hour. Minutes later, his family was informed that Thakur had met with a fatal road accident. Thakur couldn’t help his friend, but he still managed to help three strangers.
Thakur, who worked at a furniture market in Noida, was hit by a goods carrier while travelling on his two-wheeler. He was rushed to Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Center at AIIMS. On Tuesday, Thakur was declared “brain dead” by doctors. However, three people got a new lease of life as Thakur donated his liver, both kidneys and cornea.
Senior officials at AIIMS confirmed that the liver has been transplanted on a woman and the pair of kidney on a woman and a man. “He was declared brain dead Monday night. His family was counselled for organ donation and they decided to go for it. While the liver and kidneys have been transplanted, the cornea has been stored in the eye bank. All credit goes to the family,” Dr Aarti Vij, professor and faculty in-charge, Organ Retrieval Banking Organisation, AIIMS, said.
Sanjay Kumar Jha, Thakur’s nephew, said, “He had taken leave for almost two months and was visiting home. He had just had lunch and received a call from a friend. He left home at 4 pm. He said one of his friends needed some help. He did not give us any other detail. We received a call minutes later that a goods carrier had hit him. Police said the driver escaped but the crowd caught his companion.”
“He was a very helpful person. When the family was counselled, both his sons decided to donate the organs. We did not know much about it, but the sons decided that if donating organs helps save lives, we should do it without hesitation,” said Jha.
In 2016, the National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) received around 42,570 pledges for donation of organs and tissues.The exact number of patients in need of organ transplants and the number of successful transplants conducted in India is not known.
However, studies have shown that India’s organ donation rate in 2016 stood at an abysmal 0.8 persons per million population, compared to Spain’s 36 per million, Croatia’s 32 per million and 26 per million in the US.
As per official estimates, as many as 2 lakh persons require kidney transplant but less than 4% receive the organ; 30,000 need a liver transplant but less than 3% receive the organ; and 50,000 need a heart transplant but less than 1% receive the organ.
