Lover’s suicide gives new life to four

BHOPAL: The organs of BJYM leader Atul Lokhande, 29, who had shot himself in the temple over love affair, were donated after he was declared dead on Thursday night.
Liver, kidneys, heart and eyes were harvested and sent to different places. The liver was transplanted in a patient at Bansal Hospital, while kidneys were sent to Siddhanta and Chirayu hospitals in the state capital. The heart was sent to AIIMS, Delhi for transplant and eyes of Atul were donated to Hamidia Hospital for research work.

Bansal Hospital staff Rakesh Tarey said, “The patient was declared dead after the third anea tests, which is done to confirm whether the brain is responding to senses or not.Thereafter the doctors got into the act and after completing all formalities, the retrieval process was started after 3 am. A team of AIIMS, Delhi, arrived at the hospital and retrieved the heart and took it with them on early morning flight to Delhi through green corridor in the city. The liver was implanted to a patient in the hospital itself.”

According to hospital sources, the liver was implanted to a 46-year-old male patient who was shifted from Red Cross hospital for the implantation. While the heart was implanted to a 34-year-old male who was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) disease, in which the heart's ability to pump blood is decreased, at Delhi AIIMS.
The kidneys – one each – were implanted in Siddhanta and Chirayu hospitals. All the four operations were successful. The condition of all the patients is fine at this stage.
Sunil Rai, counsellor at Bhopal organ donation society, said: “The kin wanted to donate lungs also for which we had approached AIIMS Hyderabad and Chennai.
The Chennai AIIMS had confirmed the transplantation of lungs but due to lack of proper air connectivity and time, the Chennai team could not reach Bhopal on time. Hence lungs could not be transplanted. If the Chennai team would have reached Bhopal on time, lung transplantation would have taken place for the first time in central India. The condition of eyes was not proper as it was infected , following which it was donated to Hamidia hospital for research purpose.”
Doctors at Bansal said that the heart could be stored for just 5 hours, while kidney can be stored for 48 hours, while liver can be stored for 12 hours. Mukul Lokhande, brother of Atul, said: “Police band will honour Atul for organ donation before his cremation. His body will be taken for last rites from hospital and police band will honour him at his residence on Saturday morning after which his body will be cremated.”