Woman dies of heart attack, relatives donate her skin at Jaipur hospital

JAIPUR: Relatives of a 50-year-old woman, who died of heart attack at a city’s private hospital in the wee hours of Monday, donated her skin for use in burn patients and patients with deep skin wounds for their early recovery.
Such patients are vulnerable to infection as skin works as a barrier that prevents entry of microorganisms in the body. Skin grafting helps such patients in preventing entry of microorganisms causing life-threatening infection.
It was the first cadaveric skin donation reported in the state since the establishment of a skin bank at Sawai Man Singh (SMS) hospital.
The skin bank, which is the first-of-its-kind in north India at SMS hospital was inaugurated in June. Since then, it is the first such cadaveric donation of skin received by the skin bank. The donor was a resident of Vaishali Nagar.
“Anita Goel had suffered a heart attack and passed away at 5am. We received a call that the patient’s family is willing to donate her skin to save the lives of others. A five-member team reached Amar Jain hospital and harvested the skin from the donor,” said Dr Rakash Kumar Jain, head of the department (plastic surgery), SMS hospital.
The skin will be stored at a skin bank which will be used for healing of severe burns, disfigured injuries and other such injuries requiring grafting of skin for early recovery, which will help in saving the life of severely burned and injured patients in road accidents highly vulnerable to infections.