A 30-year-old Lance Naik in the Indian Army was given a second chance at life after he was transplanted with another heart from a fellow 29-year-old soldier who was declared brain dead. Reportedly, the surgery took place at Army’s Research and Referral (R&R) Hospital in Delhi last Wednesday, November 14.

What had happened?

Reportedly, the donor’s heart was airlifted all the way from the Siachen base medical facility to the Army’s R&R Hospital in Delhi. According to reports, the donor, who was also a lance naik, fell ill on November 10. He was brought to the Pratappur base camp in Siachen for basic treatment. However, due to poor weather, he could only be airlifted out of Siachen on November 12.

He underwent a surgery and shortly after, he was pronounced brain-dead by the doctors. The Times Of India reported that soon after he was declared brain dead, a National Security Guard commando, who was also his friend, made efforts to convince the family to donate his organs. After the family gave their consent, corneas, heart and kidneys of the deceased lance naik were successfully retrieved.

Meanwhile, another lance naik, NK Rao, who was suffering from multi-organ dysfunction, was in desperate need of an organ transplant. Nearly a week after he had been admitted to R&R, Rao received fellow army man’s heart.  

Donation process in India

There are basically two ways in which donation can happen in our country either by signing up a donation form for organ donation voluntarily called the living donations. If the patient is declared brain dead, the family takes the call and this is called deceased donation.

Reportedly, there are restrictions on the lifespan of the organs donated, the heart, for instance, can only be sustained for 6 hours, liver for 24 hours, kidney for 72 hours and lung for 6 hours.

Organs are to be removed as soon as possible from the body after the patient is declared brain dead and is sustained under chemical solutions till then, according to Times of India. There are various websites that have online forms for organ donations like organindia.org, donatelifeindia.org, etc, according to Times Now.

Experts are of the opinion that healthy organs which can be harvested for organ donations, get wasted due to lack of infrastructure in India, reported NDTV. Additionally, due to lack of any centralised registry in the country, records of potential donors and recipients cannot be found during times of need. However, efforts like the creation of green corridors by different state governments have facilitated easier organ transportation which has successfully saved lives in recent times.

The Logical Indian applauds the deceased lance naik’s family for taking a noble step which has potentially saved another life.

Also Read: Tamil Nadu: Brain Dead Retired Govt Sports Teacher Donates Organs, Saves 7 Lives