The loss of their loved ones did not deter two families in the city from scripting a new chapter in the lives of a few others. On Sunday, the organs of two persons, who were declared brain dead at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (GH), were harvested and donated for transplants.
Forty-two-year-old Sooryagandhi of Ayalvadi village in Vandavasi taluk sustained injuries in a road accident. She was declared brain dead at the hospital, and her relatives decided to donate her organs.
While one of her kidneys was used for a patient at GH, the other one was given to Government Stanley Medical College Hospital. The liver went to MIOT Hospital, according to GH dean V. Kanagasabai.
Similarly, the organs of Arokiasamy (45) of Arakkonam were donated after he was declared brain dead. He had sustained injuries in a fall from his bike after a dog came in the vehicle’s way.
GH used his kidneys for two patients. His liver was allotted to Apollo Hospitals, but the organ was not accepted because of cirrhotic changes (damage to the liver’s tissue), Dr. Kanagasabai said. The eyes were donated to Government Ophthalmic Hospital, Egmore.
According to statistics from the Cadaver Transplant Programme, Tamil Nadu, GH and Stanley Hospital account for 22 per cent of the total organs utilised since the inception of the programme in 2008.
The two hospitals, along with Apollo Hospitals and Global Hospital are the top four transplant hospitals in the State.
“GH and Apollo Hospitals account for 80 per cent of the total donors,” said J. Amalorpavanathan, convenor of the programme.
GH currently has two counsellors for the programme, who talk to relatives of brain dead patients and make them aware about the importance of organ donation.
Dr. Kanagasabai said the hospital has performed a total of 126 kidney transplants from cadavers, and 967 transplants from living donors since the late 1980s.
“In the last year, there have been three to four cases of brain death on an average every month at the hospital, the majority of them being road accident victims” he said.
