Brain-dead man gives life to 3, vision to two

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 12

A 25-year-old brain dead person had a life-changing impact on five lives at the PGIMER here today.

Paramjeet, a motor mechanic by profession, had met with a mishap on January 9 when his bike collided with a tractor-trailer in Una. He was rushed to the Civil Hospital there. The mishap victim was referred to the PGI here on the same day.

However, all efforts made to revive Paramjeet proved futile. Going by the prognosis, the doctors attending to him at the PGI declared Paramjeet brain dead on the night of January 11.

“Everything came crashing down,” recalls Paramjeet’s grief-stricken father Satish Kumar. “And then, transplant coordinators at the PGI spoke to us about organ donation. The idea of having a chance to save someone else’s life made sense to us; even though we didn’t have the heart to take Paramjeet off the life support,” said Satish Kumar.

After the family gave consent, doctors harvested the liver, kidneys and corneas. Their transplantation gave a fresh lease of life to three patients suffering from end-stage organ failures, who had minimal chance of survival. Cornea transplantation will restore the vision of two patients.