Brain-dead soldier gifts life to others, kin donate his organs

Military doctors at the Western Command Hospital in Chandimandir here have carried out their first ever successful multi-organ transplant harvest from a brain-dead donor.

The next of kin of the brain- dead donor – a Defence Security Corps personnel – embarked on this noble gesture of donating his organs after being declared brain death.
The first successful liver harvest from a brain-dead donor in northern Indian region was carried out on Wednesday by a multi-disciplinary team of surgeons and anesthesiologists led by the chief of gastrointestinal surgery of Command Hospital.

A military spokesperson on Friday said the Western Command Hospital has taken the lead in the task of trying to reduce the agony of terminally ill patients awaiting extremely scarce commodity of transplantable organs.

Naik Narender Singh, a serving DSC soldier, was admitted to the hospital ICU in deep coma and declared brain dead after a series of tests by interventionists and neuro-physicians.

After obtaining consent from relatives, a marathon surgery was carried out on Wednesday evening. The liver, kidneys and cornea were harvested.

The army spokesperson said the family of the brain-dead donor, who consented for multiple organ harvesting, deserve recognition and gratitude for this selfless act of courage, who even in the moment of extreme personal grief gave a lease of life to at least three terminally ill patients.

The liver and kidneys were flown the same evening by a special Indian Air Force aircraft to the Army Hospital Research and Referral in New Delhi for the benefit of patients with end-stage liver and kidney diseases.