An 18-year-old who succumbed to her neurological injuries on Tuesday has given a new lease of life to four people by donating her organs and tissues.
Amid sorrow, her mother Santosh Kaur consented to donate her daughter’s organs and tissues. Both kidneys, the pancreas, and corneas were successfully retrieved. The corneas will provide the gift of sight to two recipients. Having had a failed previous kidney transplant donated by his mother seven years ago, he had also exhausted all options for dialysis access, as major veins in both the upper and lower limbs were blocked.
Surinder Kaur, 18, a resident of Kharar, was admitted to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) on August 23 following a road accident. One kidney and the pancreas were transplanted together in a 31-year-old male recipient through a simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplant, while the second kidney was transplanted into a 15-year-old recipient at PGIMER. The four-component procedure was successfully completed after nearly 13 hours of surgery, with multiple teams working for almost 18 hours.
Dr HS Kohli, professor and head of the nephrology department at PGIMER, said, “Both recipients had been on long-term dialysis, and timely preparation and multidisciplinary management played a crucial role in the successful transplantation. Highlighting the complexity of the SPK transplant, Dr Ashish Sharma, professor and head of renal transplant surgery department, PGIMER, said “This patient underwent a complex kidney-pancreas transplant. Kaur succumbed to her neurological injury on Tuesday. Following the prescribed medical protocol and completion of mandatory assessments, Kaur was declared brain-stem dead on Tuesday by the brain-stem death committee.
