Bhubaneswar: Rare are those occasions, when one gets a chance to serve humankind, even after death. One such example is of an Odia youth, whose organs could save lives after he was declared brain dead. On the evening of October 29, 22-year-old Suraj Sethi was hit by a speeding bus while he was crossing a road in Surat, Gujarat.
Sethi was rushed to a hospital, but within a few hours, he slipped into a coma. When he did not show any signs of improvement, he was shifted to Mahavir Hospital in Surat where he underwent a CT scan. The report showed Sethi had suffered severe brain hemorrhage.
The doctors said it would be very difficult to save him due to the extent of the blood clot in his brain. On November 1, the doctors declared Sethi was brain dead but all his vital organs were working fine.
A Surat-based NGO, Donate Life, approached the family with a request, if they were willing to donate the vital organs of Sethi. His family agreed. The NGO then sought permission from Gujarat’s State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation for harvesting Suraj’s heart.
Since there was no patient in Gujarat who required a heart transplant, a request was made to the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation in Mumbai. They identified a 40-year-old woman with a defective heart valve in Fortis Hospital.
Two kidneys and a liver were donated to three needy patients in Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre in Ahmedabad while the corneas harvested by Lokdrashti Eye Bank went to two other patients in Surat.
The doctors at the Mahavir Hospital were so touched by the rare gesture of Sethi’s family that they bowed down before his body.
At his native, Lalsingh village in Ganjam, the family is shattered. Sethi’s father said, “We are broken but at the same time his service to mankind consoles and makes us feel proud of our son.”
