On Friday, as Mumbaikars stayed glued to alerts on traffic jams and train delays caused by the heavy downpour, 8-year-old Madhavi Vishwakarma battled a far bigger concern — the dress she would wear to her first outing in six months after she underwent a heart transplant. The youngest patient to undergo the procedure in the city, Madhavi was among the 17 heart recipients who had gathered at Fortis Hospital for an event where even families of donors were present, but in a separate building as the recipient-donor meeting is not legally allowed.
Connecting them, however, were heartbeats.
Madhavi, dressed in a sequined dress, spoke of how well she had recovered after the transplant. In the other building, Rekha Bavishi was grim-faced, but smiled at the mention of her grandson Deyaan Udani, whose heart now beats in Madhavi's body. Seven-year-old Deyaan was on a vacation in Mumbai from Sydney with his family in January this year when he was suddenly diagnosed with severe cerebral sinus venous thrombosis (blood clot in the brain vessel). He was declared brain dead and in accordance with a wish he had shared with his parents after learning about organ donation in his Sydney school, the parents donated his heart, liver and kidneys. “It’s difficult for the parents to cope with such a loss. But there is consolation that his heart is beating somewhere,” said Deyaan’s aunt Amira.
Mumbai has seen 24 heart transplants since August 3, 2015 of which 23 have been carried out at Fortis. Sitting among the donor families was Sangita Gund (29) a mother of two who lost her 32-year-old husband Santosh in a road accident in June. She came from Aurangabad for this event where she was felicitated for donating her husband’s organs. “I feel he is still alive. His organs gave life to four people,” she said. .
