A relative of an accident victim, who fell into coma, is crestfallen to learn that facilities to donate body organs are lacking in hospitals in the district.
M. Velraj of Naduvakurichi, uncle of T. Baskar (21), the victim under treatment in casualty ward of the Government hospital, said here on Thursday that the family had volunteered to donate the organs of the tailor, who suffered head injuries after he fell off a motorcycle.
The accident occurred on January 18 on Thattaparai road at Puthiyamputhur and he was admitted to a private hospital in Tuticorin, initially for some hours. Later, he was shifted to the GH here. Since doctors in the private hospital claimed that the patient was brain dead, they ruled out the possibility of saving his life.
He said that he had been relentlessly pursuing doctors in the GH to donate the victim’s heart and kidney, but the grief-stricken family was dejected as there was no proper guidance to succeed in its act of charity.
TGMCH Dean A. Edwin Joe said organ transplant facilities were available only in Madurai in the southern region of Tamil Nadu, apart from Chennai and Coimbatore in the State.
Efforts were on to refer the patient to Madurai, where a specialised team of doctors could harvest the organs before transplanting them.
However, he denied that the patient was brain dead.
