Youngest victim’s kin donate eyes

NEW DELHI: The family of the youngest victim of Sunday’s fatal car crash at the Delhi-haryana border said they will be donating the eyes of the 18-year-old.

Saurabh Kashyap was among the five men who died when the speeding car they travelling in crashed on to a signboard pillar after hitting the pavement near Singhu border in the early hours of Sunday.

A few hours after the accident, Saurabh’s family informed the doctors at Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital, where the bodies had been brought, that they want his eyes donated before doctors car- ried the post mortem. The family said they wanted to donate his eyes as a tribute to the 18-yearold.

Gaurav Kashyap, who was waiting for his younger brother’s body at the hospital, said donating his eyes is something Saurabh would have wanted. “He was always going out of his way to help others,” said Gaurav, a cab driver.

“Saurabh easily intermingled with new people and whenever he was asked to help anyone, he would never say no. This made him quite popular in the neighbourhood... If his eyes ends up helping someone see the world again, that would be the most fitting tribute to his life. It would also ease the pain of his loss to some extent,” said Gaurav.

“When the bodies were brought here, we looked for the ones where the skull was not as badly damaged as others. Since (in Saurabh’s case) his eyeballs were safe, we asked his family, who consented to the donation after a brief discussion,” said Aamir Khan, a technician at the mortuary.

Saurabh was the youngest of our siblings and was the most loved one, Gaurav said. He added that Saurabh had a speech defect and as a result had been mocked and bullied by many people through his childhood, but he never was rude to anyone in return.