THE HUMANITARIAN GESTURE OF DOCTOR PARENTS

It's really a great tragedy happened to the Doctor couple, Dr. Ashokan and Dr. Pushpanjali, popular doctors in their area, Thirukazhukundram, Kanchi District, TN, India (very near to Chennai) who have lost their beloved son Hithendiran, aged 16, in a motor-bike accident held on 20th September, 2008. The local people felt bad for this as both doctors have earned good will among the society through their kind social and emergency medical services. Dr. Ashokan never hesitates to attend his patients at any where at any time. For this reason, he has been called as Emergency Doctor in his area.

On that bad saturday evening (20th September, 2008) at about 6:30PM Hithendiran, the elder son of the Doctor parents took his father's bike despite his mother's objection and sped away to see some friends. His mother's plea to wear helmet was drowned by the sound of the bike speeding away. On his way back, the boy swerved while trying to avoid a oncoming bus and hit on a stationary wood-laden fish cart at Teacher's Nagar between Thirukazhukundram and Chingleput. He was thrown off the bike, got severe head injuries and fell down unconscious with excess bleeding. Precious minutes lapsed as the boy, who could not be immediately identified by the locals. The grief message reached the parents more than 15 minutes after the accident. After hearing about this the parents rushed the spot and they were moved to Apollo Hospital, Teynampet, Chennai(South)

Inspite of proper attention the doctors who attended the case griefly said that boy's brain became dead but, the proper functioning of other organs.

Toughest Decision made by the Doctor Parents

After two days of battling and intensive treatment, they could not find any improvement on Hithendiran's body condition. Realising the end of their beloved young son , in the midst of overwhelming tragedy, the doctor couple made a bold decision of donating all functioning organs of their son including heart, liver, kidney, corneas and bone marrows to different hospitals in the city. But one important thing here is that heart can not be kept for more than 30 minutes after it has been removed from a particular body. So, the team of doctors in the Apollo Hospital began to search for any body needing the heart. Yes! They came to learn that a 9 years old girl had been waiting and counting her days as she badly needed another heart.

Abhirami, 9 years old, d/o Mr. Sekar and Mrs. Manjula, Bangaluru, India had been suffering from chronic heart ailment. Dr Cherian, heart specialist, Frontier Life-Line Hospital, Mugappair, Chennai(West) took care of Abhirami and attended the case. Dr. Cherian had aleady told Abhirami's parents about her critical health condition and also the compulsory need of heart transplantation. Parents of Abhirami are ready to spend lacs of money to survive their only lovable daughter. But, they found impossible to get another heart to save their daughter from her illfate.

In this mean time, this bad thing happened to Dr Ashokan's family and the doctor couple, after confirming the brain death of their son, came to the bold decision of donating Hithendiran's heart, kidney, corneas, liver and bone marrows. Dr Ashokan and Dr Pushpanjali signed the necessary papers to donate their son's organs. After confirming the sameness of blood group, the message was immediately passed to both Dr Cherian, Frontier Life-Line Hospital, Mugappair, Chennai West and Abhirami's parents Mr. Sekar and Mrs. Manjula, Bangalore, India. Every thing was kept ready including the team of doctors heading Dr Cherian and baby patient Abhirami at Life-Line Hospital, Chennai West. Dr. Madhu Shankar and Dr. Anto Sahayaraj from the team of Dr Cherian rushed to Apollo Hospital to remove the heart of Hithendiran. The heart was successfully taken out and preserved in the ice box

It needed swift move

Considering the volume of traffic in Chennai normally it would take about 45 minutes to cover the distance between Apollo Hospital, Teynampet and Life-Line Hospital, Mugappair. So, the request was sent by the team of doctors to the Police Commissioner of Chennai to help timely reach of the heart. In a swift move, the city Police Commissoner after ordering that other vehicles on the route make way and the traffic lights enroute showing green, took the heart to the recipient hospital in just 11 minutes. The car driver Mohan was appreciated by every one for the timely reach of destination. After the reaching of heart, Dr. Cherian team immediately handled the operation and now baby Abhirami is alive!

Applause to the doctor couple

Honourable TN chief Minister Dr. M.Karunanidhi commended the humanitarian gesture of doctor parents who had made great sacrifice. People from every corner of the country are applausing the doctor couple for their toughest decision to donate more than six organs of their young beloved son in the midst of grief feelings. As both parents are doctors, well aware of organ donation they decided to take the bold decision of donating all organs including heart, corneas, kidneys, liver, lungs and bone marrows. Their great sacrifice has made the ticking of the heart of their son inside the girl Abhirami. Corneas were donated to Sankara Nethralaya where two people hopefully regain vision. His liver and kidneys were retained and harvested at Apollo Hospitals. The bone marrows have been also preserved for the treatment of cancer.

This great true story tells the importance of donating human organs which may be useful to start a new lease of life of needy persons. Our sincere prayers to long life of baby Abhirami and best regards to the couple doctors and their family members for their great sacrifices! We all pray for Hithendiran and may his soul rest in peace!