Organ Harvest On Brain Dead Boy Brings Comfort To Five Persons

Through multiple-organ donation, a six-year-old boy from Chidambaram who was declared brain dead has given fresh hope to at least three persons and vision to two others.

M. Sivakumar , son of S. Murali, a retired Air Man of the Indian Air Force, was declared brain dead Sunday last. His eyes, kidneys and liver were harvested at Apollo Hospitals.

Mr. Murali had taken voluntary retirement after 20 years of service in the technical wing of the Air Force. His wife M. Sivakumari, a teacher of Kamarajar Matriculation Higher Secondary School and he had taken the decision to donate the organs of Sivakumar, their second son, the media was informed.

Murali was a recipient of a kidney (donated by his brother) and this probably inspired him to do the same through his son.

Last Thursday , Sivakumar, a Standard I student of the Kamarajar school, took ill all of a sudden .After complaining of discomfort, he went on to develop fits. His father who had gone for a monthly check at the Air Force Hospital in Bangalore , rushed back to Chidambaram and got him admitted at the Rajah Sir Muthiah Medical College Hospital at Annamalai Nagar.

As Sivakumar’s pulse rate dipped fast, he was referred to Mehta’s Hospital at Chetpet, Chennai and put on life-support system. It was later diagnosed that the hapless boy had succumbed to a block in the heart.

By Saturday night, after the mandatory tests, doctors declared him brain dead.

To honor the memory of their beloved son , Sivakumar’s parents decided to donate his organs. Sivakumar was then taken to Apollo Hospitals where his eyes, kidneys and liver were harvested.

According to Murali , in keeping with medical ethics the hospitals have refused to divulge the details about the recipients.

Still , they did learn that the eyes were donated to Sankara Nethralaya, one kidney to a person from Neyveli and the other to a person in Chennai . Sivakumar’s liver was given to an eight-year-old boy in Delhi.

Source-Medindia
ANN/P