45 year old brain dead woman saves lives of six patients

R Meenakshi (45), the deceased was a daily wage labourer from Mettupalayam. On Thursday, her relative was riding a two-wheeler with the victim seated as the pillion rider. When the two-wheeler rammed against another two-wheeler at Mettupalayam, the relative escaped with minor injuries and Meenakshi was thrown away and suffered grievous injuries on her head. 

The profusely bleeding woman was given first aid in the Mettupalayam Government Hospital and was referred to KG Hospital in the city. Later the evening a team of experts declared her as brain dead and was reconfirmed early the Friday morning. 

Organ transplant coordinator of the hospital CB Chandrasekaran said that her husband Ramasamy (55), son Sakthivel (27) and married daughter could not understand about brain death. 

“But the victim’s brother Sivasamy understood the situation and explained her family. Finally, they preferred donating her organs and save other lives,” hospital chairman G Bakthavathsalam said. After informing Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu a team of doctors began retrieving her organs at 9 am on Friday and continued till afternoon. 

A green corridor was prepared from the hospital to the Coimbatore International Airport on the Avinashi Road (covering a distance of 10 kms) with the help of the Coimbatore City Police. 

The ambulance carrying the heart and lungs reached the airport in six minutes. The two organs were airlifted to Frontier Lifeline Hospital, Chennai. 

The liver was taken to Manipal Hospitals, Salem, on road covering 170 kms in an-hour-and-45-minutes. While one of the kidneys were transplanted to a patient in KG Hospital, the other was taken to Sri Ramakrishna Hospital in the city and eyes to Sankara Nethralaya Eye Hospital, in the city. 

It may be noted that, even though, the country had passed “The Transplantation of Human Organ Act” in 1994, it was “The Hithendran effect” in 2008 which brought paradigm shift in the attitude of Tamil Nadu’s people toward organ donation.