Uttar Pradesh: Dead youth gives new lease of life to three

LUCKNOW: To give a new lease of life to three terminally ill patients, a green corridor was created between Apollomedics Super Speciality Hospital and the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences on Wednesday to transport the kidneys and liver of a 21-year-old brain-dead patient.
Deputy superintendent of police, traffic, Subhash Shakya said at least 30 personnel were deployed to ensure seamless transfer of the organs from Apollomedics to SGPGIMS, located 10.4 kilometres apart.
“Coordinated efforts helped in the execution of the task in about seven minutes,” he said.
While green corridors have been created in Lucknow several times in the past, this one was unique as it was between two local medical facilities of which one is a private player.
Director, medical services, Apollomedics, Dr Ajaya Kumar said: “The patient (donor) was brought to our centre around 6.30pm on May 9 with grievous head injury sustained in an accident. Despite best efforts, the boy slipped into a brain-death stage by 10am on May 10. As per protocol, the family was apprised about his condition and that there was little that could be done to revive him. They were also informed about the importance of organ donation. The parents agreed to donate his organs and gave a written consent a few hours later.”
“The State Organ and Tissue Transplant Authority was roped in and after necessary paperwork, doctors at the two medical centres decided to provide one kidney to a patient at SGPGI. Doctors at SGPGI also agreed to conduct the entire cross-matching work. The liver and other kidney were initially retained at Apollomedics for suitable matches. Extraction of the cornea was also proposed but could not be conducted because of the nature of the injury,” Dr Kumar said.
Head of nephrology department, SGPGI, Prof Narayan Prasad said, “The patient was declared brain dead at 9pm on May 10 paving way for cross-matching. Our technician, Mahesh, carried out this work which was finalized at 4.30am on May 11.”
He sent another team to the private hospital at 9am to collect the kidney for a 37-year-old woman who required a transplant due to end-stage renal ailment. The kidneys were extracted by Dr Anand Srivastava, Dr Shashikant Gupta and Dr Aditya Sharma and handed over to the team from SGPGI. The same team proceeded to transport the other kidney for transplantation into a 35-year-old man diagnosed of chronic kidney disease.
At the same time, a separate team at Apollomedics, comprising Dr Ashish Mishra and Dr Waliullah, extracted the liver and transplanted it to a 55-year-old man suffering from end-stage liver disease. Dr Ajaya said the recipients were stable but under observation.
“It is a workable example of an organ sharing network in the city. This has also established the need and scope of work in underserved areas,” Dr Prasad said.
CEO and MD, Apollomedics Hospital, Dr Mayank Somani said, “The deceased youth’s family was devastated but took an exemplary step for humanity. The well-coordinated exercise helped in saving the lives of three persons. We are open to such endeavours in future as well.”