There is now a common thread between 59-year-old Krishna Bose, a railway employee, and 45-year-old A Vimala Hasan, a scientist working with National Aerospace Limited.
Bose was suffering from liver failure and Hasan from kidney failure. They received organs in a city hospital recently from the same cadaver donor.
While both are unaware of who the donor was, they are thankful to the donor for gifting them a second innings of life.
Bose displayed the first symptom of liver failure on a trip to Haridwar. A resident of Kolkata, on her way home back, doctors from the Railways Hospital confirmed she had second stage liver failure. "We came to our daughter's house and consulted doctors from Manipal Hospital. At the same time, I enrolled with the zonal co-ordination committee in Karnataka for transplants (ZCCK)," said Bose.
It took her eight months of wait, a maintenance treatment and multiple hospital admission, before she could get a cadaver liver donation.
"Bose had chronic liver disease, which eventually led to liver failure and accumulation of fluid in the abdomen. On October 31, as soon as we got the donor liver, a liver transplant surgery was performed. She is doing well now," said Dr Sadiq Sikora, HoD, surgical gastroenterology, Manipal Hospital.
Soon after surgery, Hasan was taken in for kidney transplantation.
"I was diagnosed with kidney disease in 1996 and for five years, I have been undergoing dialysis. I registered with ZCCK three-and-a-half years ago. Thrice, I was called in for an organ transplant, but could not opt for it since my physiological tests didn't match that of the donor's," Hasan said. While for Hasan, his family members were ready to donate kidney, since the family had a history of hypertension, they were not fit for organ donation.
Almost a month after surgery, Hasan is fit and fine and dreads the sight of the dialysis room.
"I wish to donate my organs too, but I was told that since I have an undergone organ transplant, I am not fit for donation," he said.
The demand for organs is high in India. Although 150,000 kidneys, 60,000 livers and 30,000 pancreas and several lakhs of hearts and lungs are needed every year, hardly a fraction of this demand is met.
"It has been estimated that of the organ donations that take place, only 1% are from cadaver donors. On the contrary, India records one of the highest road traffic accidents globally, and any brain-dead patient can donate organs," said Dr Sudarshan Ballal, medical director, Manipal Health Enterprise.
The ZCCK and Mohan Foundation are working towards authorising more hospitals to enable organ transplantation and to harvest organs.
Nimhans is recognised as an organ harvesting centre since it gets the highest number of road traffic accident cases in the city, Dr Ballal said. The latest amendment to the Human Organ Donation Act that will come soon will make it mandatory for hospitals to document brain-dead cases that come to the intensive care unit or neurology department, he added.Krishna Bose and Vimala Hasan are thankful to their donor for gifting them a second innings of life.
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