'It's a shame I couldn't donate my son's heart' INDIA

NDTV

Mumbai: "We wanted our son's heart to keep beating after his death, to give someone else life, but it will never happen." The father who donated his son's liver, kidney, and eyes after he died in a road mishap has an overwhelming remorse: that he could not donate his heart "because Mumbai does not have experienced hands to make it happen". Last Saturday, 26-year-old Kunal Ashok Chheda, a Dombivli resident, was on his way to help rescue a leopard that had entered the premises of a Mulund school. When he came to know the forest department had set a trap to bell the cat, he turned back his bike to go home. But he was never to reach.

"He called us around 11.45 pm to tell us he would reach home by 12.30 am. But he never did," his mother said. While returning home via the Eastern Express Highway, Kunal met with an accident near Kalwa. He wasn't wearing a helmet. Passers-by and the traffic police rushed him to Thane civil hospital. Cops tried to contact Kunal's father, Ashok, but his number was not stored in Kunal's mobile. Around 4.30 am, the family contacted one of his friends and learnt of the accident.

Hard-hit
At the hospital, his family members were told that Kunal - who had returned to Mumbai after quitting a human resources job in Kolhapur not more than a month ago - had suffered serious head injuries and was unconscious. "We decided to shift him to Jupiter hospital, where doctors said he was in a coma, and there was a slim chance of his staying alive. Since I wanted my son to remain alive in some way, we decided to donate his organs," Ashok said.

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