Indian Express
21 April 2010

DIED on her 21st birthday last week, Sushita Rai from Thane gave a few parting gift to five ailing patients–her organs. Distraught parents of Sushita Rai said they wanted to keep her alive by donating her organs. “She often told her college friends and her brother that she wanted to donate organs but only to poor patients. We donated the organs so that her soul rests in peace,”said Sudhakar Rai, Sushita’s father.

Sushita, a student of Sadhna Col lege in Bhandup, and one of her family friends were returning home when they met with an accident around 11:30 pm on April 12. Sushita was rushed to Wockhardt Hospital but later shifted to Aastha Nursing Home where she was declared brain stem dead. “Only because her mother insisted, she was kept on ventilator,” said Uday Shetty, Sushita's paternal uncle.

“Her 18–year–old brother Sumeet told the family about her wish to donate organs.“ She was transferred to KEM medical intensive care unit on Sunday where she was put under bat tery of tests in order to certify as brain dead,”said Dr Sanjay Swain, associate professor, Urology department, KEM Hospital. This was the first cadaver organ donation at KEM Hospital in the last 12 years. “Cadaver transplants will be a priority for us from now onwards,” said Dr Sanjay Oak, dean of KEM Hospital

Dr Sujata Patwardhan, head of Urology department, who con ducted the transplant said they had identified five brain dead patients last month but the families of all of them refused to donate organs. The organs were retrieved on Sunday by a team of doctors from KEM, Jaslok and BSES Hospital. It took more than six hours to retrieve liver, two kidneys and two corneas. While liver was transplanted to a 45–yearold man at Jaslok Hospital, the two kidneys were given to two different patients, a 37–year–old woman at KEM Hospital and a 34–year–old man at BSES Hospital. He had already undergone two unsuccessful transplants earlier.