28-yr-old's organs give new lease of life to four

Kolkata: Four men battling organ failure are looking forward to a new life after transplant surgeries in three different hospitals on Friday after the family of Soumen Bhadra, who was declared brain dead at Apollo Multispeciality Hospital, consented to donate his organs. This was the ninth deceased organ donation in the city this year.

The 28-year-old Purbasthali resident was brought to Apollo on May 19 after he suffered a cerebral stroke. Bhadra was under intensive care but his condition deteriorated. On Thursday, doctors informed the family that Bhadra had suffered irreversible brain death and approached them for donating his organs.

"When the hospital explained the concept of brain death and the possibility of organ donation, my sister readily agreed with the hope that her husband's organs will help others. Though it was impossible to save him, at least his organs can infuse life into the recipients," said Bhadra's brother-in-law Tupai Das.

Once Bhadra's wife Anjana agreed to donating Bhadra's organs, the hospital informed Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (East), that regulates organ donation and allocation. The heart was allocated to RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences and went to a 28-year-old man; the liver was transplanted into a 53-year-old man at Apollo; a kidney was transplanted into a 28-year-old man at Apollo and the other was allocated to IPGMER for a 27-year-old man.

Bhadra's family said he worked as an executive in a private bank branch in Burdwan and was the only earning member of the family. He has a 14-month-old son. Sources said an attempt was also made to retrieve the deceased's lungs, but was aborted as the organ was found unfit for transplant.

ROTTO, in the past few cases, had coordinated with NOTTO, the nodal agency in the Centre, to send lungs, liver and small bowel to other states.

The ninth deceased donation comes a month after the previous one that happened on April 26. There were four donations in April and May has seen only one donation so far. ROTTO (East) sources said the organisation is putting in more effort towards sensitisation and better coordination to boost the organ donation count. In 2022, the state recorded a total of 14 deceased donations.