Organ donation: In death, soldier’s teen daughter gives fresh lease of life to 2 patients

Chandigarh, January 11

A 15-year-old daughter of an Army jawan, who met with a fatal accident, has given a fresh lease of life to two critically ill persons through the donation of her vital organs.

The girl was declared brain dead at Command Hospital, Chandimandir, after a road accident in which her mother also died. The girl’s father, serving as a havildar in the Territorial Army, took the noble decision in his hour of grief to donate her vital organs, sources said.

In a midnight surgical endeavour, the transplant team of Command Hospital harvested the girl’s liver and kidneys. The harvested organs were flown to the Army’s Research and Referral Hospital, New Delhi, in an Air Force aircraft from Chandigarh, and successfully implanted into the patients admitted there.

In the past, the Western Command Hospital has performed several organ harvesting and transplant operations, providing a new lease of life to critically ill persons.

Organ donation was started in the armed forces in the late 2000s and introduced at the Western Command Hospital in 2014. The process is coordinated by the Armed Forces Organ Retrieval and Transplantation Authority in New Delhi.

Several other military hospitals across the country have also performed similar life-saving operations.