SURAT: A woman from Jalgaon in Maharashtra had managed to beat Covid-19 but her ordeals were far from over.
Coronavirus had completely damaged her lungs.
With doctors advising lung transplant as the only option to save the woman, her family was hoping against hope to get an organ donor in time.
Just before midnight on Sunday their prayers were answered when the family of a 46-year-old brain-dead woman from a Surat village decided to donate her organs.
Kamini Patel, a resident of Timbarva (Sankli) in Bardoli taluka, gave a new lease of life not only to the 31-year-old woman Covid-19 survivor from Maharashtra but also to six others.
Apart from lungs, Patel’s heart, two kidneys, liver and corneas were also donated.
The lungs were transplanted into the Covid-19 survivor woman at Hyderabad’s KIMS Hospital.
A green corridor was created from Surat to Hyderabad, a distance of 940 km, and the lungs were shifted in 160 minutes.
Patel was under treatment since May 17, after she was unable to get up from the bed.
Her blood pressure shot up all of a sudden and doctors diagnosed that she had suffered brain-hemorrhage.
She was shifted to Shalby hospital in Surat where the blood clot from her brain was removed after craniotomy surgery.
But her condition did not improve and doctors declared her brain-dead on Saturday after which the Donate Life team approached the Patel family.
“My wife is dead but she would give a new lease of life to seven people.
Her organs would bring smiles to the faces of those patients who are in urgent need of them,” said Bharat, Patel’s husband.
The heart harvested from Patel was transplanted into a 46-year-old woman from Mumbai at Mumbai-based H N Reliance Hospital.
Patel’s one kidney was transplanted into a 30-year-old woman from Ahmedabad at the Sterling Hospital, Ahmedabad.
Her second kidney was transplanted into a 27-year-old woman from Ahmedabad at the Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre (IKDRC), Ahmedabad.
The liver was transplanted into a 58-year-old man from Bhavnagar at the IKDRC.
The corneas were donated to Surat-based Lok Drashti Chakshu Bank (eye bank).
For a grieving Bharat, a social worker, it wasn’t a tough decision to make when the Donate Life team including its founding member Nilesh Mandlewala approached him for organ donation.
Bharat had helped in setting up isolation wards for Covid-19 patients and distributing medical instruments and other items to the needy in Bardoli and nearby villages.
“We met the family members and they readily agreed for cadaver donations,” Mandlewala, founding member of Donate Life.
Patel’s son Aniket, who is pursuing computer engineering from Charuset University in Anand, despite the personal loss, was thinking about the lives that the cadaver donations would save.
“Due to Covid-19, many people including youngsters have suffered damage to their lungs and they need urgent transplants to survive.
My mother’s lung would help one of the Covid-19 survivors get a new life,” Aniket said.
“This was the first heart and lungs donation from Gujarat since the onset of the second wave of Covid-19,” Mandlewala added.