A 21- year- old Kundan Baitha from Siswa Bairagi, West Champaran, Bihar who met with a fatal road accident on January 29 has saved the lives of four persons by donating his organs.

PGIMER conducted its first-ever simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplant from where the pancreas was retrieved from a deceased donor while the kidney was donated by the sister of a patient.  January 22 turned unfortunate for 21-year-old Kundan Baitha when going to some work when his bike skidded, leading to his head hitting the road and making him unconscious with a fatal head injury.

On getting the tragic news, the family first got Kundan to the Regional Hospital, Una, and seeing no improvement, he was shifted to PGIMER in an extremely critical condition on January 23. However, nothing could alter the destiny and Kundan’s seven days of the grueling struggle between life and death came to an end on January 29 when he was declared brain-dead by the certification committee at PGIMER.

But even in this darkest hour and amid their own grief, the grief-stricken father Narsingh Baitha showed exceptional courage by consenting to donate the organs of their deceased dear one when the option of Organ Donation was flagged to him. Following the family’s consent, the heart, Liver, kidneys and pancreas were retrieved from the donor for transplantation to improve others’ lives.  

 Paying rich tributes to the donor family, Prof Vivek Lal, Director PGIMER stated, “One develops a different level of respect for the donor families like this one of donor Kundan Baitha, who sustain the hope in others by making it possible through their courageous decisions of organ donation braving their own tragedy.” “With incessant efforts of the PGIMER team involved in the process, the momentum for Organ Donation certainly seems to be building up gradually. Though slow, we hope to inch closer to bridging the donor-recipient gap,” added Prof Lal.