MUMBAI: If Akola earned infamy in recent times as kidney kingpin Santosh Raut’s hometown, a kidney patient from the same town has brought it some redemption.
On Sunday, 23-year-old Amruta Teredesai lost her battle against chronic kidney disease at Mumbai’s Jaslok Hospital, but her family donated her liver and eyes to change forever the lives of three patients in the city.
Amruta came to Mumbai from Akola on February 19 after her college friends and relatives collected Rs 40,000 for her travel and medical expenses.
"We got so much goodwill that we decided to give something back to society—the organ donation was our thanksgiving," said Amruta’s maternal uncle Ravi Deshpande.
Her doctor, Nikhil Kibe, had treated Amruta, the daughter of a weaver, free of cost since her chronic kidney disease was detected a month ago. "We want the country to know that Akola is also home to helpful people and doctors," Kibe said.
Dr Horror is just an aberration, he added.
In Mumbai on Sunday evening, the family of a 50-year-old Dombivli man was waiting anxiously for the completion of his liver transplant operation.
"The patient had Hepatitis C cirrhosis and had been waiting for a recipient for a long time," said Jaslok Hospital’s liver specialist Dr Aabha Nagral.
Amruta’s corneas were sent to an eye bank which would give them to two corneally blind patients.
Amruta’s mother Mangala was to donate a kidney for her 23-year-old daughter, who was pursuing her postgraduate degree in Sanskrit and hoped to become a teacher.
"But Amruta had an aneurysm in her brain that had began bleeding in Akola itself," said Dr Madan Bahadur, nephrologist from Jaslok Hospital who was treating her.
While the city doctors thought they could operate on her brain and contain her aneurysm (an abnormal bulge of an artery), her chronic kidney disease and the accompanying high blood pressure meant they didn’t get an opportunity to operate.
On Saturday, her aneurysm started bleeding again and she slipped into a coma. When approached for organ donation, the family was willing.
"At least some of her organs will see a full lifetime," her uncle said.
Incidentally, Amruta’s donation marks the second deceased (cadaver) donor for Mumbai in February, said coordinator of the Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC) Sujata Ashtekar. In the first fortnight, 42-year-old Bhiwandi resident Venkatesh Konda’s family donated his kidneys and eyes at Bombay Hospital.
An active cadaver donation programme has been cited as the only cure for the malaise of kidney bazaar that has been plaguing India, but cadaver donations haven’t taken off in the country.
In 2007, for instance, Mumbai saw only seven cadaver donations while the patient pool, needing transplants, runs into lakhs.
According to Dr Bahadur, "Doctors fight to the end to save patients’ lives, but today the fight should in some cases be extended beyond death to save organs, to save lives."
Dr Kibe added that Amruta’s story should inspire others to donate organs.
On Sunday, 23-year-old Amruta Teredesai lost her battle against chronic kidney disease at Mumbai’s Jaslok Hospital, but her family donated her liver and eyes to change forever the lives of three patients in the city.
Amruta came to Mumbai from Akola on February 19 after her college friends and relatives collected Rs 40,000 for her travel and medical expenses.
"We got so much goodwill that we decided to give something back to society—the organ donation was our thanksgiving," said Amruta’s maternal uncle Ravi Deshpande.
Her doctor, Nikhil Kibe, had treated Amruta, the daughter of a weaver, free of cost since her chronic kidney disease was detected a month ago. "We want the country to know that Akola is also home to helpful people and doctors," Kibe said.
Dr Horror is just an aberration, he added.
In Mumbai on Sunday evening, the family of a 50-year-old Dombivli man was waiting anxiously for the completion of his liver transplant operation.
"The patient had Hepatitis C cirrhosis and had been waiting for a recipient for a long time," said Jaslok Hospital’s liver specialist Dr Aabha Nagral.
Amruta’s corneas were sent to an eye bank which would give them to two corneally blind patients.
Amruta’s mother Mangala was to donate a kidney for her 23-year-old daughter, who was pursuing her postgraduate degree in Sanskrit and hoped to become a teacher.
"But Amruta had an aneurysm in her brain that had began bleeding in Akola itself," said Dr Madan Bahadur, nephrologist from Jaslok Hospital who was treating her.
While the city doctors thought they could operate on her brain and contain her aneurysm (an abnormal bulge of an artery), her chronic kidney disease and the accompanying high blood pressure meant they didn’t get an opportunity to operate.
On Saturday, her aneurysm started bleeding again and she slipped into a coma. When approached for organ donation, the family was willing.
"At least some of her organs will see a full lifetime," her uncle said.
Incidentally, Amruta’s donation marks the second deceased (cadaver) donor for Mumbai in February, said coordinator of the Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC) Sujata Ashtekar. In the first fortnight, 42-year-old Bhiwandi resident Venkatesh Konda’s family donated his kidneys and eyes at Bombay Hospital.
An active cadaver donation programme has been cited as the only cure for the malaise of kidney bazaar that has been plaguing India, but cadaver donations haven’t taken off in the country.
In 2007, for instance, Mumbai saw only seven cadaver donations while the patient pool, needing transplants, runs into lakhs.
According to Dr Bahadur, "Doctors fight to the end to save patients’ lives, but today the fight should in some cases be extended beyond death to save organs, to save lives."
Dr Kibe added that Amruta’s story should inspire others to donate organs.
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