65 years old, Ratni Kaur, who died in an unprecedented tragedy, has saved lives of three patients by organ donation.
The PGIMER witnessed a magnanimous gesture by the family of deceased Ratni Kaur from village Dayalpur in district Jalandhar, Punjab when they consented for her organ donation, resulting in saving life of three patients suffering from end stage organ failure and battling for survival, one at NIMS Jaipur and two at PGIMER.
The retrieved corneas from the donor will restore the sight of another two patients at PGIMER, thereby five lives are impacted in all with the donor family’s heart-warming gesture of organ donation, said a PGIMER spokesperson .
It was the fateful day of August 24, when a joyous occasion in the neighbourhood suddenly turned into an unprecedented tragedy for Ratni as her dupatta accidently got stuck into a moving farata fan, leading to her fatal strangulation. As Ratni fell down and became unconscious, the family rushed her to DMC Ludhiana. Seeing no improvement in her condition, Ratni was shifted to PGIMER in an extremely critical condition on August 25.
However, all the efforts by the medical team as well as the family proved futile as Ratni could not be revived and subsequently, after following the protocols as per THOA 1994, was declared brain dead in the evening hours of September 3.
When it became clear that Ratni would not survive her devastating injuries, the transplant coordinators at PGIMER approached Des Raj, son of deceased Ratni, to request if he could consider organ donation.
The brave-heart son Des Raj, along with his equally resolute wife Gurpreet Kaur and sister Kulwinder Kaur showcased immense grit and consented for organ donation, the PGIMER spokesperson said.
Though finding it difficult to come to terms with reality, Des Raj said, “There is never any age for the parents to go. It is as if your own life has come to an end, your world is doomed. There are no words to describe someone being in our position. Hope our decision for organ donation helps some people turn lucky and save their parents. This will be our biggest tribute to our demised mother. ”
Elaborating about the case, Dr Vipin Koushal, NODAL OFFIcer, ROTTO PGIMER shared, “As Ratni’s family wanted their mother to relive in others, it became our moral duty as well to respect their wish. Following the family's consent, we secured her liver, kidneys and corneas. The cross matching indicated that there was no matching recipient for liver in PGIMER. So, we immediately got in touch with other transplant hospitals in northern region to explore options for matching recipient and finally liver was allocated to National Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) Jaipur with the intervention of ROTTO.”
Dr Koushal further said, “It was literally a race against time. We had to complete all the procedural formalities, harvesting process as well as transportation of the organ to International Airport within a huge time crunch for a chartered flight. The harvested kidneys were transplanted in two renal failure patients here in PGIMER, Before the transplants, both the matching recipients were suffering from the last stage of debilitating kidney ailment and had been dependent on dialysis for long.”
