West Bengal: 93-Year-Old Becomes First Indian Woman To Have Her Body Donated For COVID-19 Research

In a first for India, a 93-year-old woman's body was donated for research to find out the effects of coronavirus on humans in India.

Jyotsna Bose, a trade union leader, tested positive for the virus and was admitted to a hospital on May 14. She died two days later.

A statement issued by Gandarpan, an NGO that spearheaded cadaver donation in West Bengal, said that Bose is the second person from the state after its founder Brojo Roy, to have gotten a pathological autopsy conducted on her body at a state-run hospital here, following death due to COVID-19, reported New Indian Express.

Bose's grandaughter Dr Tista Basu said her grandmother had pledged her body through Roy's organisation 10 years ago. Roy was the face of the body donation movement of West Bengal and breathed his last on May 14.

"We do not know much about coronavirus as it is a new disease. We need to understand its full effect on organs and organ systems. Pathological autopsies help us in this quest, " said Dr Basu.

Basu was born in 1927 in Chittagong, which is in present-day Bangladesh. During World War II, her father went missing while returning from Burma and the family experienced a financial crisis.

As a result, she failed to complete her studies and had to take up a job as an operator at British Telephones. She became involved in the trade union movement shortly after and participated in the 1946 posts and telegraph strike in support of the Naval mutiny. And, it was from here that her stint as a trade union leader started.

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