Salem accident victim turns saviour
Written by Writer on Saturday, October 25th, 2008
Salem accident victim turns saviour
25 Oct 2008, TNN
CHENNAI: A 45-year-old man, who was declared brain dead at a private hospital in Salem following a road accident, was shifted on Friday night to the city where doctors plan to retrieve his eyes, heart, kidneys, liver and skin for transplants.
According to reports, doctors at the Frontier Lifeline hospital in Chennai received a call from Dr Rajagopal, an intensivist in Kamala Hospital, Salem, stating that the relatives of a patient who had been declared brain dead was willing to donate the patient’s organs to those requiring the transplant.
The patient, Radhakrishan, a theatre assistant at the hospital, suffered severe injuries in a road accident on October 22 while he was travelling from Salem to a nearby village. His wife and two daughters, both in their teens, agreed to the transplant. He also has a year-old son.
They contacted the parents of Hithendran, the 15-year-old boy whose organs were recently successfully transplanted to others after his death in an accident, who suggested that they contact Frontier Lifeline.
The doctors at Frontier Lifeline networked with government and private hospitals and decided to request the family to help them shift the patient to Chennai.
“Salem is quite far and we weren’t sure how healthy the organs would be if they were retrieved there. We decided to provide support for shifting the body. In fact, we had even sent our ambulance to Kancheepuram so that they can take over from there,” said Dr Madhu Shankar, Frontier LifeLine, who has been coordinating with the transplant process.
The patient’s relatives agreed to allow the body to be shifted. The hospital, meanwhile, networked with government central organ registry at the Government General Hospital and several other private hospitals.
“We know the patient has O positive blood group. As of now, we have decided that our hospital will use the heart. We have lined up two patients for a midnight surgery, the Stanley Medical College would take one of the kidneys while Apollo Hospitals would take the other kidney and liver. The eyes would go to Sankara Nethralaya and the patient’s skin would be retrieved for grafting burn victims at the Kilpauk Medical College.
They had also alerted the city traffic police to enable them to ease traffic at the time. “It was a real challenge for the police because the traffic was chaotic after the rain and almost all roads were choked and waterlogged,” said a doctor at the Government Stanley Medical College hospital.
At the time of filing the report, the ambulance carrying the donor had reached the city and was on its way to the hospital.
