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An act of compassion
Jain family donates eyes, kidneys of son
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

Nawanshahr/ Chandigarh, October 24
Exactly four days ago, on Karva Chauth, 34-year-old Sunil Jain, a Nawanshahr-based small trader, started from his home never to return. On the way to Noorpur Bedi ( Ropar) he met with a road accident and later succumbed to his injuries at the PGI, here yesterday.

Before he breathed his last, his family members set an example of human compassion that is rarely demonstrated. The family opted to donate both kidneys and eyes of a dying Sunil Jain at the PGI, here yesterday.

As Sunil Jain lay battling for the last gasps of breath at the PGI, his family comprising his widowed mother, Mrs Swaran Kanta Jain, his young wife, Mrs Shelly Jain and his younger brother Mr Anil Jain, resolved to take the ultimate humanitarian step to help unknown recipients.

Senior doctors at the PGI, who normally get to see several acts of kindness in their daily life, told the Tribune that such organ donations were rare. Normally, the eyes are donated and that too by a few people otherwise, superstitions come in the way and family members are pressurised by relatives.

“The family was very noble”, said a PGI doctor who was associated with the process closely.

Today in Nawanshahr at the Rishi Mohalla, the home of the family, everything came to a standstill when the body of Sunil Jain arrived outside his home. Policemen stopped traffic as a stream of mourners reached out for the last rites. Sunil Jain’s two children Akshit 13, and Akansha, 7, knew their father had gone but the great deed done by their family may probably take a few years to dawn on their young minds.

Few of the mourners knew about the humanitarian step taken by the two women of the house and his younger brother. The younger brother of the deceased said: “We had not even heard about organ donations of dead or dying people. My cousin sister’s husband in Chandigarh, Mr Arvind Jain, made us aware of how we could do to help a great cause”. Now I realise it will help four other families, he said in a choking voice. A Tribune team had accompanied the body right from the PGI to the family home in Nawanshahr.

Narrating the entire episode, Mr Arvind Jain, a Sector 22 trader in Chandigarh said, Sunil Jain was a dealer of readymade garments and used to travel on his scooter to collect payments.

On the fateful day he was away to Noorpur Bedi in Ropar. The scooter was driven by his friend and he was riding pillion. The silencer of the scooter came off and got entangled in the rear wheel throwing both riders of the scooter.

Sunil Jain received head injuries. His friend stopped a roadways bus and managed to take him to the Anandpur Sahib Hospital from where he was rushed to the PGI. By the time he was admitted to the PGI, he was brain dead in medical parlance. A team of three doctors, one each from the neurosurgery wing, internal medicine wing and radiology wing, gave the final verdict that Sunil Jain could not be revived.

The family shifted him to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where he did not respond to treatment and attempts to revive him failed, said Mr Arvind Jain. It was then decided to approach his wife and mother if they would be keen on any such humanitarian cause. The two women readily agreed.

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