In death, 15-year-old Siliguri girl gives life to five

Kolkata, August 18

A brain dead 15-year-old has brought joy to at least five people who received her two kidneys, liver, corneas and skin graft in the city.

A spokesman of the state-run Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research (IPGMER), SSKM Hospital, said today that Mallika Majumder was declared brain dead by the institute yesterday.

The girl, who hailed from Siliguri, was diagnosed with a brain lesion after being admitted on July 23 and had slipped into coma on August 14, the spokesman said.

Her father Manik Majumder said over phone from Siliguri, "We were told by the doctors that there is no possibility of our daughter returning to life once she was declared brain dead. We were then convinced that if her organs could be transplanted on other persons she will continue to live among others. And that is our biggest consolation."

Mallika's kidneys were successfully transplanted to two patients at SSKM Hospital last midnight, state nodal officer on organ transplantion Aditi Kishore Sarkar said.

IPGMER sources said the two kidney recipients were Moumita Chakraborty of Khardah and Sanjib Das of Sodepur in North 24 Parganas district.

The girl's cornea was also been donated to a patient at SSKM and part of her skin was grafted on a burn patient.

While all the other organs could be successfully transplanted within the IPGMER SSKM compound, the liver was taken to a private hospital off E M Bypass through the green corridor facilitated by Kolkata Police early this morning, he said.

The recipient was a 44-year-old person from Hyderabad who was flown into the city last midnight and the liver was successfully implanted after a five-hour operation, a statement from the private hospital said.

It praised the pro-active efforts of the state health department which is working with the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (ROTTO) to raise awareness about organ transplant.

"This incident will set an example about donating organs of brain dead patients and raise public awareness," Sarkar said.

A relative of Das, who was a recipient of one of the kidneys, said, "I will not belittle Mallika's parents and the doctors by thanking them. Words fail to express our emotions." The last organ donation in the city had taken place over four months ago, in April. — PTI