The lungs, kidneys, heart and liver of a 21-year-old boy, who was declared brain dead, were harvested at a city hospital on Tuesday.
An official of the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (ROTTO)
said the family of Deep Roy, 21, volunteered for organ donation.
Sudipto Roy, the elder brother of Deep, said they were informed about Deep’s condition on Monday. “We were verbally informed in the morning that he was brain dead. We were given documents confirming this in the evening. We told the hospital that we wanted to donate his organs so that someone else in need could get a fresh lease of life,” Sudipto said.
Deep had met with an accident while riding a two-wheeler with two friends on Kalyani Expressway on November 3. Police rescued him and took him to a hospital in Barrackpore.
The family, from Shyamnagar in North 24-Parganas, later shifted him to Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals. He died at the hospital.
Sudipto said how the two-wheeler met with an accident was not fully clear, but he could understand that it had skidded after hitting a speed-breaker.
It was also not clear whether Deep was driving the two-wheeler or riding pillion.
Nirmal Dutta, regional and state transplant coordinator, said they were thankful to the family for their response. “Deep Roy’s lungs, one of the kidneys and liver went to Apollo, the heart went to SSKM Hospital and another kidney went to Ruby General Hospital,” said Dutta.
Deep’s father, in his 60s, works as a welder and fitter; his mother, in her 50s, is a homemaker. Sudipto, 27, works in the store of a company that manufactures railway wagons.
Officials of ROTTO and hospitals said that once a family provides consent to organ donation, the hospital where the brain-dead person is admitted informs ROTTO, which then gets in touch with potential recipients.
There is a list of recipients waiting for an organ with ROTTO. Each patient is also attached to a hospital for treatment. The hospital, too, is informed.
Surgeries to harvest the organs started around 1pm at Apollo and ended around 5pm. Surgeons from the hospitals to which the recipients are attached reached Apollo. “Harvesting all the organs starts simultaneously,” said a ROTTO official.
Subhasish Datta, chief general manager (operations), Ruby General Hospital, said a 64-year-old man from Kasba, who has been under treatment at the hospital, received one of the kidneys.
“We got in touch with the patient on Monday evening. He is a stage-V patient with chronic kidney disease. He had been briefed earlier that he might have to get ready at short notice for the transplant,” said Datta.