Boy’s parting gifts: Hands, organs

SURAT: In his passing, he became a legend by donating all his organs and even limbs too. But sadly, Diamond City’s 14-year-old Dharmik Kakadiya, who battled each day of his short life as he couldn’t find a matching kidney donor, on Sunday, gifted his heart to a 15-year-old class XI student from Junagadh in Ahmedabad, who became the youngest patient for heart transplant surgery done in the state.
But Dharmik’s benevolence doesn’t end there, he became the youngest donor of the country to ‘giving’ his hands to a Pune resident, who had lost both his hands and legs due to electric shock. Incidentally, this is the 19th hand transplant surgery in the country.
While the class X student died in pain, he breathed a new lease of life in seven people altogether by donating his heart, liver, lungs, eyes and also his hands. “My son lived in a painful condition and we are aware of how important organ donation is. Hence we agreed to donate whichever organs were useful,” said Ajay, Dharmik’s father and an employee in a diamond unit.
Dharmik developed kidney problems five years ago and the condition kept deteriorating requiring him to undergo dialysis thrice a week. Even as family members wanted to donate their kidneys, but none matched and they were forced to register his name for donation.
On October 27, Dharmik was admitted to the hospital after his blood pressure shot up following complaints of vomiting. He suffered brain haemorrhage and a blood clot had developed in the brain. Even though the clot was surgically removed, his condition was unlikely to improve and doctors declared him brain dead.
“We approached the family and they agreed as they knew the importance of organ donation. It was a tough call for any family to agree to donate the outer organs of a young child,” said Nilesh Mandlewala of Donate Life.
As the hands had to be transplanted within eight hours, three green corridors were created in the city for the first time by the city police to transport the vital organs at the earliest. The hands had to be transported by air to the Mumbai hospital within 105 minutes.
The liver was transplanted to a 35-year-old Patan resident in Ahmedabad, lungs on a 44-year-old Andhra Pradesh resident in Chennai.