Zoya's kidneys give lease of life to 2 men

NAGPUR: On Wednesday, the Rana family saw the mortal remains of their dear daughter Zoya for the last time. But not only will the 21-year-old girl live on in their memories, lives of two young men would also become much easier thanks to her kidneys.
While returning home on Monday morning, Zoya met with an accident near Bole Petrol Pump in Dharampeth.Some passers-by took her to a nearby private hospital where she was given primary care and then shifted to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH). Her family then took her to Meditrina Hospital, a couple of hours after the accident. There, she was intubated and kept on ICP monitoring. After being monitored for the next 24 hours, doctors declared Zoya’s brain stem was irreversibly damaged.
“We were told not to very hopeful the moment we arrived at the hospital. While they kept updating us about the treatment, doctors at the hospital also asked to consider donating Zoya’s organs. Though I was unsure of initiating the topic at home, her parents Shamsuddin and Rozina said they wanted to do it,” said Abbas Rana, Zoya’s paternal uncle. He also thanked Dr Sameer Paltewar and Dr Mahesh Sarda for their support and sensitivity through the whole process.
At the same time, Rana was upset about the harrowing time he had to undergo to complete the procedure, that included shuttling between Buldi and Dhantoli police station and GMCH for the required documentation. “Perhaps because it’s something they deal with everyday, police and the doctors at the mortuary seemed highly insensitive to the troubles of a family losing a dear one. It took me nine hours to get through all this,” he said. This delay, he added, meant the family couldn’t donate Zoya’s eyes as they wanted to as corneas have to be extracted withing six hours of death.
“After they took the decision, Zoya had to be shifted to Orange City Hospital and Research Institute (OCHRI) as it is one of the few hospitals in the city allowed to carry out kidney transplants. We applied for it several months back but the state-appointed committee that approves the application hasn’t had time to visit our hospital,” said Dr Paltewar.
While one of the kidneys was retained by OCHRI and given to one of their patients, the other was taken to CARE Hospital where it was transplanted on another patient, informed nephrologist Dr SJ Acharya. He and his team performed the surgery to retrieve Zoya’s kidney at midnight on Wednesday and went on to perform the transplant surgery through the night. The recipient is 28-year-old man who has been on dialysis for five years.
Dr Ashwini Kumar Khandekar, who performed the other transplant, said the second recipient, a 35-year-old father of a toddler couldn’t be happier. “He was running out of funds to keep performing the dialysis. Last week, there was a matching donor but he couldn’t raise funds for the surgery. He was lucky to have got a matching donor and funds available this time,” he said.
TIMELINE
MARCH 23
8.30am | Zoya meets with an accident at Bole Petrol Pump square, a passerby takes her to a hospital at Ravi Nagar from where she is shifted to GMCH. Family took her to Meditrina
10.00-10.30 am | At Meditrina, doctors found injuries in the brain and put her on life support, ICP monitoring
MARCH 24
10.30am | After 24 hours, she was declared irreversibly brain stem dysfunctional and family agreed to donate her kidneys and eyes
12.30pm-1.00pm | Shifted to Orange City Hospital and Research Institute
1.00pm | Family started visiting to police stations and GMCH mortuary for documentation
3.00pm | Brain stem function test done to confirm her condition
9.00pm | Second test confirmed irreversible damage to brain stem
9.30pm-10.00pm | Family counseled and consented, suitable recipients were called and cytotoxic cross match between donor and recipient was performed; procedural delays prevented extraction of corneas
12.00am | Surgery for retrieval of donated organs began
2.30am | Organs retrieved by donor-surgical treatment, one kidney taken to Care Hospital
3.00am | Operations began on kidney recipients