Organs from 18-month-old, 8-year-old save 5 kids’ lives
BOTH CHILDREN HAD SUFFERED TRAUMATIC INJURIES AFTER FALLING FROM BALCONIES AT THEIR HOMES
NEW DELHI: The families of two children under the age of 10, who were declared brain dead at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), donated their kids’ organs over the last 48 hours, saving the lives of at least five children.
According to doctors at AIIMS, the first donor, 18-month-old Mahira, fell from the balcony of her house in Mewat, Haryana, on November 6. She was brought to the Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre on the same day with severe head injuries. She was declared brain stem dead on November 11. The second donor was eight-year-old Mansi, a resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura, who also fell from her balcony on November 2. She was declared brain stem dead on November 12, doctors said.
Dr Aarti Vij, head of the Organ Retrieval Banking Organisation (ORBO), said that Mahira’s kidneys were transplanted in an en-bloc procedure—wherein two kidneys from the same small paediatric donor, along with the vena cava and aorta, are transplanted into a single recipient— in a 17-year-old patient, and her liver was transplanted in a seven-year-old patient at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS).
“Her corneas and heart valve have been banked in the national eye bank and heart valve at AIIMS,” Dr Vij said.
She added that Mansi’s liver and one kidney have been allocated to a 12-year-old at ILBS and her second kidney was donated to a patient at AIIMS. Her corneas and heart valve are also banked in AIIMS.
Jamshed Khan, Mahira’s father, said that it was an extremely difficult for her family to decide to donate Mahira’s organs while dealing with her loss. “I am sure my daughter will find a place in heaven because she has saved the lives of so many other children who are fighting for their lives.”
Ramakant, Mansi’s father remembers her as a child “full of life”. “We will take heart from the fact that our daughter saved so many lives even in her death.”