Brain-dead's organs donated; Green Corridor from Manipal to Mangaluru Airport

Udupi, Mar 22: The coastal district of Udupi witnessed the first organ donation from a 30-year-old brain-dead man at the Kasturba Hospital here on Tuesday.

The organs harvested from the body were two kidneys and a liver. While one of the kidneys was made available for transplantation for a patient at the Kasturba Hospital here, the clearance for another kidney is awaited and could be for a patient either in Manipal or Mangaluru.

The liver was transported to Columbia Hospital (Yeshwantpur), Bengaluru, for a patient there.

Earlier, a medical team from Columbia Asia Hospital reached the Kasturba Hospital here by evening for harvesting the organs and for subsequent transplantation procedure in Bengaluru. The procedure of harvesting the organs was performed by a joint team of specialist doctors at the Kasturba Hospital here. Purushotham Naik (30), a fisherman from Talgod near Bhatkal, who was returning home on his motorcycle, suffered severe head injury when a goods autorickshaw collided with the motorcycle in Bhatkal on March 14. He was rushed to the Kasturba Hospital here the same day. Though he showed some improvement initially, his condition deteriorated.

He was declared brain dead on March 21. His family was keen on donating the organs to help other needy patients. Ramdas Naik, brother of the deceased, said: “After discussing it in our family, we thought if the body is just cremated, it would benefit no one. But if the organs are donated, it will help many persons.”

In this endeavour, they got guidance from their family friend Pandu Naik, who is a teacher at Bunder School in Bhatkal, who was a recipient of a kidney each in 1997 from his mother and in 2011 from his wife. A team of two members from the Zonal Coordination Committee for Transplantation took the consent of the family members for organ harvesting.

The Udupi and Dakshina Kannada police created a Green Corridor to transport the harvested organs from Manipal to the Mangaluru airport.

R. Vishal, Deputy Commissioner, K. Annamalai, Superintendent of Police, M. Dayananda, hospital medical superintendent, made all necessary legal and administrative arrangements. The Airport Authority of India offered all possible assistance for smooth passage and transit of the team and the organs.

Meanwhile, Naik's family had paid Rs. 38,000 out of the Rs 1.08 lakh of the hospital's bills here. But on request of the district administration, the hospital has waived the balance amount.