67-year-old man’s kin donate his vital organs

Nagpur: A senior citizen from the city who was in vegetative state after collapsing while on vacation a fortnight ago, will virtually give a new lease of life to five persons as his vital organs were donated by his family.

The eyes, kidneys and skin of Vinayak Ramrao Deshkar (67) were retrieved on Saturday and sent to Mumbai by a chartered flight. The city traffic police provided a green corridor from Orange City Hospital and Research Institute, Nagpur, to the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport.

Deshkar was admitted to hospital on June 16, with a history of hypertension, diabetes, hypothyroidism and fresh massive intracranial bleed. Deshkar’s doctors counselled his relatives about the vegetative state of the patient and its consequences.

On June 22, Deshkar had sudden hypotension and no spontaneous respiration. When Deshkar’s relatives were again counselled about absent brain stem activity, his wife, Gayatri and sons Abhishek and Anurag proactively came forward and wished to donate his kidneys, eyes and other organs to the needy so that it could be beneficial to many others.

Dr Anup Marar, director of renal transplant and organ retrieval unit along with Dr Ravi Wankhede, Dr Shivnarayan Acharya, transplant advisor, OCHRI, visited the hospital for reviewing the status. They proposed organ donation and the patient was shifted to OCHRI on June 23 for maintenance of potential organ donor pending retrieval.