Radha's Last Diwali Gift

I was called in to see a patient on the day before I left town for the long weekend before Diwali! The young man in the ICU had multiple facial bone fractures. He also had a serious head injury and was on a ventilator. I glanced through the neurosurgeon’s notes which gave him a grave prognosis due to a bad brain stem injury. In fact my opinion about the facial fractures was superfluous. The Glasgow Coma Scale at less than six indicated that he was unlikely to make it. I was writing down my notes when the duty medical officer who was looking over my shoulder asked me if I recognized the patient. I had not. I suddenly felt greater remorse when he told me it was Radha (short for Radhakrishnan) a theatre assistant in the same hospital. Someone I knew well. The doctor told me of how he was involved in a hit and run accident on the highway near Salem and of how he was left untreated in a large corporate hospital for six hours before his colleagues went over, put in a breathing tube (intubated) and brought him to Kamala hospital. He was unrecognizable due to his facial injuries and the tubes. I told his wife that I would see him again when I returned on Tuesday, although I knew that he was unlikely to make it.
On my return after Diwali , I learnt that he had created magic over the weekend. Dr K K Rajagopal the owner and Director of the hospital, in consultation with the neurosurgeon had decided that Radha was brain dead. He convinced Radha’s wife on the benefit of an organ donation since he was well perfused on a ventilator. A young boy’s parents had made a similar decision a few week’s before and the media had covered it well. The public were waking up to the benefits of this good media coverage about organ donation. Dr Rajagopal contacted Dr K M Cherian a Cardiac Surgeon at Life Line in Chennai. It turned out that there was a very sick lady with dilatory cardiomyopathy waiting for a heart transplant. Within the next 24 hours Radha was transported to Chennai (6 hours away by road) still hooked on to a ventilator. Even as he arrived at Life Line the adjacent operating room was prepared and they had the lady who needed a new heart on the table. After going through the necessary compatibility tests a team of doctors removed Radha’s heart, liver, two kidneys and corneas. While the heart was plumbed in to the lady waiting with her chest open, the other organs were harvested by doctors from other hospitals in the city. Within fifteen minutes the organs were transported under special conditions to the respective hospitals while the lucky recipients were already readied to receive them in the shortest time possible. The police had cleared the traffic to allow the Ambulances to go unimpeded through the otherwise snarled traffic. Finally a team of plastic surgeons from the Stanley Medical College removed sheets of skin for the skin bank and a team of orthopedic surgeons removed his bones for the bone bank at Kilpauk Medical College. The lady patient was off the ventilator the next day, Radha’s heart ticking away in her chest. Two patients with end stage renal disease got a new lease on life with Radha’s kidneys. One very sick patient with liver failure was given a new and healthy liver. Two persons will shortly see better with Radha’s corneas. His banked skin will probably save the life of a critically ill patient with severe burns. Radha’s bones after being appropriately prepared will replace lost bone in some accident victim and help him move around. Radha himself was subject to a post mortem (autopsy) to record the events of his great sacrifices before he was declared dead. Well! not really. Radha will go onto live a multiplied life in others. These are the real heroes of our lives. Radha gave the ultimate Diwali gift! The gift of life.