Kolkata creates ‘green corridor’ to transfer organs of a teenager who died in an accident
The state has huge potential for donation but superstition has led few people to take such steps
Kolkata: For the first time in Kolkata, a 12-km ‘green corridor’ was created by the city police to ensure speedy transportation of kidneys, liver and cornea of a brain-dead Grade 12 student, Swarnendu Roy, who died in an accident on Thursday evening.
Roy, who lived on the eastern fringes of the city, was returning from mathematics tuition on Thursday when he was hit by a motorbike resulting in serious injuries to the head. He was admitted to a government hospital by residents who found him lying on the road. His parents later moved him to Apollo Gleneagles.
The efforts of neurosurgeons to remove the blood clot and ease the hemorrhage failed after a night-long operation. Doctors informed Swarnendu parents Chandrasekhar and Sujata that his chances of survival were slim. By evening, the couple learned that their only child had slipped into a coma.
A ‘green corridor’, first used in Chennai, is mainly created to tackle medical exigencies, and have manually-operated street signals to avoid peak-hour traffic. Liver and kidney of Swarnendu were transplanted into three women, Rubi Sardar, Sanjukta Mondal and Nilofar Ara. Sanjukta received his liver while Rubi and Nilofar were donated each of his kidneys. Swarnendu’s cornea was also transplanted to a blind man.
“I did not do anything to prove our greatness or even consider this as great social work. I just wanted my son to live in other bodies,” Chandrasekhar Roy said.
“He was a talented young man who had lot of potential. It is our loss that his life was cut short in a tragic manner. His talent would have benefited humanity. I never imagined that he would benefit people like this at such a tender age,” the bereaved father added.
The state officials and the city police have also earned kudos for timely action that made this organ donation possible. State organ donation nodal officer Aditi Kishore Sarkar ensured that all procedures were followed before the health department gave its approval and later the city police formed the corridor through which organs were transported to a government hospital for transplantation.
“This is a landmark day which will give millions of other patients hope,” said an official of the Apollo Gleneagles Hospital.
“Every year, an average 160,000 people die of road accidents out of which at least 100,000 are declared brain dead. Of this, only 300 are ultimately taken up for liver or organ donation. The awareness among people needs to be increased so that others can live,” Mahesh Kumar Goenka, Director, Institute of Gastrosciences, Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals here, said.
“There is a superstition that if people donate the cornea, they will be born blind in the next life. All these and lack of awareness is reason that so many other lives cannot be saved,” said PIjush Das, a sociologist. “The Roys have created history in the city.”
