At least six people are likely to benefit from the decision of the parents of a 23-year-old man declared brain dead to donate his heart, liver, kidneys and corneas.

The process of harvesting Amit Mukherjee’s organs started at Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals late on Wednesday, after a team of surgeons from Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, reached the city.

Mukherjee, a resident of Shakuntala Park in Behala’s Parnasree, had a bike accident in Ultadanga early on October 15.

His cousin Sudipto Chattoraj said they were pandal-hopping and Mukherjee was on the pillion of a friend’s bike when the accident occurred.

Both were wearing helmets but Mukherjee’s came off during the accident, Chattoraj claimed.

Mukherjee’s father is a bus driver by profession.

“He had suffered head injuries and was extremely critical when he was brought to the hospital,” an official of Apollo Gleneagles said.

“He underwent a neurosurgery but there was no significant improvement. His condition started deteriorating on Wednesday and he was declared brain dead on Thursday morning,” the official said.

If the harvest as well as the transplant is successful, it would be the fourth instance of a heart transplant in the city.

The first took place on May 21. But this will be the first time that both the donor and the recipient are from Bengal.

So far, the heart has been harvested in some other state and flown to Calcutta for transplant.

Mukherjee’s heart, if harvested successfully, would go to Anima Naskar, 44, of Panchla in Howrah.

She suffers from cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart is enlarged and its pumping capacity is low, a hospital official said.

But various factors — such as the age difference between the donor and the recipient and their body weights — need to be compatible to make the transplant successful, doctors said.

Manoj Kumar Hela, 36, a chronic liver failure patient from Entally, was admitted to Apollo Gleneagles on Thursday to receive Mukherjee’s liver.

A kidney would go to SSKM Hospital for a 23-year-old man.

The corneas would be retrieved and collected by doctors of Disha Eye Hospital.

When the preliminary apnea test — a test for brain death — was done on Wednesday afternoon and Mukherjee’s friends were told that he might be brain dead, they asked if his organs could be donated, the Apollo Gleneagles official said.

On Thursday morning, when another apnea test confirmed brain death, the hospital asked the patient’s father, Panchu Mukherjee whether the family wanted to go for organ donation. “He agreed,” the official said. “We were touched by the family’s gesture. Panchu Mukherjee said they were very poor. On humanitarian grounds, we have waived off the bill of Rs 7 lakh.”

Woman held

A woman who had been arrested in Darjeeling on the charge of abetment to suicide and brought to the city by officers of the Bidhannagar commissionerate was sent to 14 days’ judicial custody on Thursday. Anika Rai’s friend Darpan Raj Singh had been found hanging on September 18 in a house in Kestopur, where they lived on rent. Rai was arrested based on a complaint filed by Singh’s father.