Naval officer, who gave new life to 4, cremated at Rohtak
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/ROHTAK: A 24-year-old naval officer from Panchkula, declared brain dead after a road accident, has given a new lease of life to four people as his family decided to donate his organs.
His body was cremated at his native village Bhali Anandpur in Rohtak on Friday.
Sub-lieutenant Atul Kumar Pawar of INS Dronacharya, at the Southern Naval Command in Kochi, had gone to Wayanad on a short trip with friends on September 24.
He was seriously injured on his way back when the vehicle in which he was travelling hit a road divider at Chalakudy in Thrissur district.
Pawar was rushed to a hospital in Kochi where doctors declared him brain dead on Wednesday.
Overcoming their grief, his father Rajbir Singh Pawar, and others in the family expressed the wish to donate his heart, liver and two kidneys. The organs have been harvested for transplant to recipients at Government Medical College, Kottayam, Aster Medicity, Ernakulam, Air Force Command Hospital, Bengaluru and Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Ernakulam respectively, according to a defence release.
“In deference to the wish of the parents of the deceased officer to see a part of their son continuing to stay alive in the Armed Forces community, one of the donor kidney was transferred to the naval base, Kochi from Aster Medicity hospital,” the defence release issued in Kochi said.
Naval and civil police ensured a green corridor along the entire route from where it was sent to Bengaluru through an Indian Air Force aircraft for transplantation to a recipient in the Command Hospital Air Force, Bengaluru, it said.
According to the medical college release, Pawar’s heart will be harvested on a 50-year-old man undergoing treatment at the Kottayam medical college hospital.
The officer joined the Indian Navy on January 15, 2015 as a short service commissioned officer after completing B.E in Civil Engineering.
He is survived by his parents and a younger brother, a college student.
Wreaths were laid by vice admiral AR Karve, flag officer commanding-in-chief, Southern Naval Command along with other officers at a solemn ceremony on board the INS Dronacharya, and the mortal remains are being transported to his native place for the last rites.