Heart and other organs of a ‘brain dead’ farmer, Dhanya Kumar from Banakal near Mudigere in Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka, were harvested at the Father Muller Medical College and Hospital in Mangaluru and transplanted in patients in Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Bengaluru and Manipal.
The heart and lungs were sent to patients in MGM Hospital in Chennai while the liver was sent to Fortis Hospital in Bengaluru. The two kidneys were sent to A.J. Hospital and Research Centre in Mangaluru, and skin to KMC Manipal hospital in Manipal, near Udupi. The cornea was used for a patient in Father Muller Medical College and Hospital (FMMCH).
The 37-year-old farmer suffered a serious head injury following an accident in Banakal on December 8. Following first aid at the government hospital in Banakal, Dhanya Kumar was brought to FMMCH late on December 8 night.
His uncle Aravind Prasad said neurologist at the hospital told Dhanya Kumar’s wife Arpita and other relatives about his condition and suggested donation of organs. “We lost him (Dhanya Kumar), but we decided to donate his organs to needy patients,” Mr. Prasad said.
FMMCH Superintendent K. Uday Kumar said a committee of specialist doctors at the hospital carried out tests twice and declared Dhanya Kumar as ‘brain dead’. Then, the zonal coordinators of State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO), Karnataka, got specialists to harvest the organs.
The Mangaluru city police provided a green corridor to send the heart, lungs and liver to Mangaluru airport from where they were airlifted to hospitals in Bengaluru and Chennai. Arrangements were made to send some of the organs by road to KMC Manipal near udupi and A.J. Hospital in Mangaluru.
On December 9, FMMCH facilitated transplantation of liver, pancreas and kidneys of Neil Sequeira, 36, from Urwa in Mangaluru, who was declared brain dead following an accident in Uppala in Kerala.
