West Bengal: Accident victim’s organs give new lease of life to two

KOLKATA: The kidneys of a brain-dead youth were donated to two recipients at the SSKM Hospital on Sunday.
Atanu Chakraborty (27), who met with an accident a few days ago, was declared brain-dead on Saturday night.
His family agreed to donate his organs, prompting a team of doctors at SSKM to begin a harvesting surgery. The kidneys were transplanted to a 32-year-old and a 38-year-old at the same hospital.Both the recipients are men.
“The harvesting began immediately after the family consented to the donation. It took several hours to complete the transplant surgeries on the recipients,” said a hospital spokesperson.
This is the second kidney transplant at SSKM since last week. The kidney of a 26-year-old brain-dead woman was transplanted on a recipient at the hospital last Monday.
The week before that, four organs of a brain-dead patient at Peerless Hospital were donated to recipients at SSKM and Command Hospital. As many as four green corridors were created to transport the organs. The transplant surgeries continued till the Sunday morning.
Last week, a green corridor was created between RTIICS and SSKM to transport one of the kidneys of the donor for transplant at the SSKM Hospital. The other kidney and the liver were given to recipients at RTIICS. Since the donor had undergone a cardiac surgery, her heart was declared unfit for a transplant.
While this was the second deceased liver transplant at RTIICS, the city has witnessed more than a dozen transplants so far this year, including one last week.
The first heart transplant in the city was done in May, 2018. Ever since, around half-a-dozen more have been done, including one last month. While brain death declarations and organ donations were slow to take off in Kolkata, the heart transplants have given it a major fillip, according to those associated with transplants.