05 August,2014 09:55 AM IST | | Anuradha Varanasi
After she dies due to a cardio-respiratory arrest on Friday, Nandini Gopal’s husband honours her wishes and donates her eyes, liver and kidneys to three people waiting for organs
When Mulund resident Sreeram Gopal lost his 43-year-old wife Nandini a day after she suffered a headache and convulsions, his world came crashing down around him.
Nandini Gopal's kidneys and liver gave three women a new lease on life, just a day after her death
Even as he grieved for the sudden and unexpected loss, Gopal now finds some comfort in the fact that his wife will live on, in the lives of others. Less than a day after she was declared brain dead due to cerebral bleeding, Gopal and other family members decided to donate her organs, saving three lives in the process.
"My wife Nandini was admitted on Thursday. The very next day, doctors informed us that she was brain dead and wouldn't make it. We immediately decided to donate both her kidneys, liver and eyes, since she had always been keen on organ donation," said Sreeram.
"Why let her organs go to waste when we could help other patients? Since she always said she would want us to donate her organs in case anything happened, it was the right thing to do," he added. Nandini, who worked as an HR consultant with a private firm, died from cardio-respiratory arrest. Her eyes have been donated to an eye bank.
Of the three women who got a new lease on life because of the donations, one was a 28-year-old woman admitted in Bombay Hospital, in need of a kidney. The two other beneficiaries a 47-year-old woman with a chronic kidney disease and a 72-year-old woman with liver cirrhosis had been on the waiting list in Fortis Hospital, said Santosh Sorate, transplant coordinator of the hospital.
Speaking to mid-day, Dr Haresh Dodeja, nephrologist at the hospital, said, "The 47-year-old woman was on dialysis for the past six years due to a chronic kidney disease. She was on the waiting list for quite a while, and finally had her kidney transplant after the donation. Her condition is stable now."
The 72-year-old recipient who was suffering from liver cirrhosis will now get another shot at life, after receiving the liver. Dr Rakesh Rai, head of the liver transplant programme at the hospital, said she is now under observation in the ICU following the transplant, and that her condition is also stable.
