IN PROBABLY the first in the country, a newborn baby that survived for only 68.3 hours became the youngest-ever organ donor in PGIMER’s transplant history. The newborn gave a new lease of life in the form of his baby kidneys to a 21-year-old woman whose both kidneys had failed.
The baby boy belonged to Patiala district. When doctors broke the news to young parents on Wednesday that their newborn wouldn’t pull through, the parents expressed their desire to donate his organs stating that “they want their baby to re-live through others”.
PGI claimed that the newborn is probably the youngest organ donor in India, but is definitely the youngest ever do not in the transplant history of the hospital since the cadaver organ transplant programme was initiated in 1996.
The child was detected with congenital disease at a hospital in Patiala from where he was referred to PGIMER, Chandigarh.
Professor Ashish Sharma, head, Department of Renal Transplant Surgery, PGIMER, said, “Retrieving organs from children for transplant is rare, it is even more uncommon from newborn babies with congenital anomalies.
“The case is also important as it puts focus back on neo-natal organ donation as a way of increasing the number of organ donors in the future,” Prof Sharma said.
Read more of this unique feat in a report by Hina Rohtaki published in The Indian Express... (Link given below)
