For 24-year-old Naren Prabakaran, M.Tech. student of a leading college, his mother Lourdu Arockia Mary (44) is dead only physically. Spiritually, however, she lives through three precious lives her vital organs managed to save – thanks to the timely and courageous act of her son.
When the doctors of a private hospital, where she was being treated for head injuries suffered in a road accident two days ago, declared on Wednesday that Mary was brain dead, a visibly shaken Prabakaran, despite his huge personal loss, decided to light the life of at least a few by donating her vital organs. Since the hospital did not have facilities for organ harvesting and transplantation, Mary was transferred to Frontline Hospital, where her heart, two kidneys and two eyes were harvested between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. by a team of doctors and paramedical staff.
While one of the kidneys was transplanted to a patient in the same hospital, another was sent immediately to a nearby private hospital and transplanted successfully.
The heart was taken to a private hospital in Chennai by flight. Escorted by a team of policemen, an ambulance carrying the Mary’s heart was rushed to the Tiruchi airport via Chathiram bus stand, Shastri Road, Uzhavar Santhai road, Othakadai, and TVS tollgate.
The ambulance driver, Kumar, took just 10 minutes to cover the distance of 12 km. Traffic was blocked briefly along the route to facilitate free movement of the ambulance.
“My mother was a kind-hearted person and had helped people all through her life. She had always maintained that we should help the needy even during trying times, hence we decided to donate her organs,” said Mr.Prabakaran, her only son.
Ms.Mary was working in Golden Rock Railway Workshop, a job she got on compassionate grounds after her husband Pugalendi’s death a few years ago.
