Brain-dead Odisha woman passes on life to 2 patients

Even though her passing away will always be felt by her family, Odisha’s Tanuja Kar will be remembered forever by them for saving lives of two persons. The kidneys of Kar who was 57 have been transplanted to two men, who have now got a new lease of life.

A native of Jagatpur, she had suffered a brain stroke last week and was admitted in SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, where she was undergoing treatment at the cardiothoracic and vascular surgery department.

Unfortunately, she did not respond to the treatment and was declared brain dead by the doctors. As both her kidneys were in good condition, the medical team approached the family to donate them. Despite the sorrow which had taken over them, they gathered courage to donate her organs. Sambit Kar, her son, told the media even though they were unable to save their mother, they were keen that others should get a second chance in life.

Following their decision, Dr. Samir Swain, Head of Urology department of SCB MCH and his team of 20 doctors from diverse departments, including cardiothoracic, nephrology, urology and anaesthesia among others, acted swiftly to retrieve and transplant the kidneys. The retrieval took an hour while the transplantation took five hours. The two recipients with high priority status were selected – Jharsuguda’s Alok Bodak (36) and Saurjya Ranjan Sahoo (48) from Cuttack – and their cross match was made with the donor.

What made the whole process challenging is that transplant of cadaveric kidneys has to be done within six hours of harvesting and also that unlike live donor transplant, patients in this case usually respond late.