14-year-old girl’s parents donate her liver after declared brain dead in Odisha
BHUBANESWAR: In an exemplary gesture, the parents of a 14-year-old girl on Friday donated her liver after she was declared brain dead at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar.
The hospital facilitated the organ harvesting after the girl, who was suffering from renal failure and cerebral edema, was declared brain dead.
Sources said, AIIMS surgeons harvested the liver from the body of Damayanti Mahanta, a Class IX student, following her brain stem death. The organ was immediately transported to the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS), New Delhi. The Commissionerate Police created a green corridor up to the airport for smooth transportation of the organ.
Daughter of Banita and Dukhabandhu Mahanta from Keonjhar district, the girl was suffering from chronic kidney disease and was under dialysis for the last few months. She suffered a brain stroke and was admitted to the department of medicine at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar on February 15.
Subsequently, she went into a coma and was on ventilator support. As she showed no signs of recovery, the girl was declared brain dead by the expert committee of AIIMS following a series of apnoea tests. Despite the irreparable loss, the brave parents of the child came forward to donate her organs to save lives.
“We struggled a lot to save my daughter. When doctors informed us that she could not be saved, we gathered courage to donate her organs so that others could get a second chance in life,” said Dukhabandhu, an autorickshaw driver.
The surgeons retrieved the liver while her lungs and other organs could not be retrieved due to some unavoidable reasons.
Executive director Dr Ashutosh Biswas expressed gratitude to the brave parents for the great humanitarian gesture. “This was the first cadaveric organ retrieval at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar. The teenage girl and her family set an example for others,” he added.
Organ retrieval started after the approval of the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (SOTTO). Treating physician Dr Srikant Behera coordinated the process. Dr Brumhadutta Pattnaik, faculty from the department of GI surgery led the team of surgeons.