Brave Driver Gives away son's organs

CHENNAI: An auto driver from Triplicane donated the organs of his son, who was rendered brain dead after an industrial accident.

Balaji (28), who had been working as a lathe worker in a small industrial machinery firm at Royapettah, met with an accident in the company on Monday.

“He was injured badly in the chest and the head. We took him to the Government Royapettah Hospital first and following that we were asked to take him to the General Hospital. The doctors said that there was no hope of his survival,” said his brother Satish.

Chasing hope, they took him to a private hospital where they were given a not-so-promising diagnosis.

 “We put him in a small nursing home where the doctors said that his body was producing some urine and his heartbeat was decent. But then on Tuesday night, it was all over,” he said.

They went back to the private hospital on Greams Road, where grief counsellors asked if they’d consider organ donation— at 28, his organs were young and healthy.

His father K Balakrishnan who, at 56, still drives an auto to keep the family afloat, put aside the grief of losing his middle born and agreed to let the organs be transplanted.

“It was a brave move, especially because he just wanted more people to make such good decisions even at their worst time,” said his cousin Mani.

Doctors managed to transplant Balaji’s  heart, his kidneys, liver and eyes and distributed them to various hospitals on Wednesday night.

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