40-day-old saves lives of 2 babies

Source: Deccan Chronicle

In a rare but heart-warming case of organ donation, a 40-day-old infant gave a fresh lease of life to two four-month-old babies suffering from congenital heart disease.

The eyes of the infant, who died of internal haemorrhage, were donated too.

The heart valves of the infant donor, son of Mr Vijay Kumar, a rubber factory worker, were successfully transplanted into V. Devipriya from Kurnool and Shehil Tondare from Chandrapur in Maharashtra. Had the transplants not taken place on time, both the children would have died within a few months.

Dr K.S. Murthy, chief paediatric cardiac surgeon and CMD of Innova Hospital, who along with his team performed the surgery, said the transplants took place around a fortnight ago.

“The blue babies (a term used to describe babies with congenital heart disease) had a hole in the heart and the pulmonary valve wasn’t properly formed. The operations were successful. Both the recipients had homograft valve transplantation from the donor and are the youngest recipients of homograft transplantation in the country.”

The families of the two recipients are happy and immensely grateful to the little donor.

Mr V. Sridhar, father of Devipriya, said, “I had almost given up hope. I kept running around from one hospital to another but heard that chances of getting a donor were slim. God came to my rescue in the form of the donor baby.”

The parents and relatives of the infant donor, though initially heartbroken, came to terms with their son’s death eventually.

Mr Vijay Kumar, said, “Maybe God gave him a short life and sent him to the earth only for giving life to others. Mr Raghuram of Mohan Foundation told me how my son can still live through others. So I agreed to donate his organs.”