http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/25/stories/2008102554950500.htm
Ramya Kannan and R. Ilangovan
| Family members of the patient were inspired by the gesture of the Ashokans |
K. Radhakrishan
SALEM/CHENNAI: A second cadaver donation in Tamil Nadu within the space of a month took place on Friday.
K. Radhakrishnan, who was declared brain dead on Friday morning, was rushed to Chennai in a fully-equipped ambulance from the hospital in Salem where he was admitted. He was brought to Dr. Cherian’s Frontier Lifeline Hospital, wired to life-support systems and his organs were removed by surgeons at the hospital.
The family members of Radhakrishnan, 42, decided to donate his organs after he was declared brain dead. Radhakrishnan suffered head injuries during a road accident near Salem a couple of days ago.
Apparently, they were inspired by the gesture of the Ashokans who donated their 16-year old son Hithendran’s organs after the boy was declared brain dead on September 23.
Co-incidentally, Radhakrishnan and his wife Latha, like the Ashokans, are both medical professionals- while he was an operation theatre assistant in Kamala Hospital, Salem, she worked as a staff nurse in the same hospital. K. K. Rajagopal, a critical medicine expert of Kamala Hospital, who motivated Latha and other relatives to donate Radhakrishnan’s organs since he was ‘brain dead,’ told The Hindu that their best efforts to revive him had failed. “His brain, we found today, was dead,” he said.
After obtaining the ‘go-ahead’ from Latha, Dr. Rajagopal contacted Dr. Ashokan for guidance on how to proceed with the cadaver donation. He tried to call several hospitals in Chennai but found them reluctant to take up the case as the distance between Chennai and Salem was about 6 hours by road.
They struck it lucky with Frontier Lifeline in Mogappair. Dr. K.M.Cherian advised Dr. Rajagopal and his team to rush the patient to Chennai in a fully-equipped ambulance with Radhakrishnan immediately.
As with Hithendran’s case where Additional Commissioner Traffic Sunil Kumar facilitated free flow of traffic in the city so that the heart reached the recipient well before time, Salem City Police Commissioner N. Chenbaharaman also alerted the police stations on the way to provide security and ensure free passage for the ambulance carrying Radhakrishnan to Chennai.
While Radhakrishnan’s heart was used for a patient at Frontier Lifeline, his liver and one kidney went to Apollo Hospitals and one kidney was given to the government hospital.