Army man gives life in death, his heart beats in an IAS aspirant

Jammu, March 24: Even as tales of their bravery and sacrifices continue to overwhelm us, this life-in-death story of a young Army jawan is both inspirational and heart rending. Meeting an unfortunate death while on vacation in his home town of Saharanpur, the jawan was rushed to Delhi’s R&R Army Hospital where he was declared brain dead.

The family-keeping in mind the courage their son has shown over the years - agreed for donating his organs including heart and the young man saved many lives including that of a young IAS aspirant, who received his heart which was transplanted by a team of specialist doctors led by Dr Ajay Kaul, Chairman & HOD, Cardio Thoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS) at BLK Super Speciality Hospital.

At a time when chorus on the need to promote organ donation is growing, this young Army man takes the lead and comes as an inspiration. The recipient, a young 28-years-old man from Jhajjar, Haryana who had to quit his dreams to become an IAS officer because of a severe heart ailment got a new lease of life when he got the heart of this braveheart, who was almost his age.

Harmender (recipient) was admitted to BLK Super Speciality Hospital on March 5 with complaints of difficulty in performing routine daily activities described as heart failure stage D. “ Post all investigations, it was diagnosed that he had severe left ventricular dysfunction, His both valves Aortic and Mitral were incompetent and leaking. His heart was highly dilated with very poor pumping action and the only treatment for such patient is Heart Transplant,” informed Dr. Kaul.

The heart was transported from R&R Hospital to BLK Super Speciality Hospital in a record 8 minute after Delhi Traffic Police yet again created a green corridor for the same. The family of the deceased had given consent for a cadaver donation after the man was declared brain dead on arrival in the hospital. Timely information from NOTTO helped save the young man in first attempt after he applied for heart transplant.

National Network division of NOTTO functions as apex centre for All India activities of coordination and networking for procurement and distribution of Organs and Tissues along with registry of Organs and Tissues Donation and Transplantation in the country.

At the end of it, there is glimmer of hope in the survivor, who thinks he can chase his dream of civil services. Besides of course, his longstanding desire to spend happy moments with his 18-month-old son.

The donor heart was perfect match for the recipient and their age, body build and haemo-dynamics all matched. Surgery started at around 2.35 am lasted till 6.30 am. Dr Ajay Kaul and Dr Sushant Srivastava in CTVS, Dr Subhash Chandra and Dr Neeraj Bhalla, Dr. Dheeraj Gandotra, in Cardiology, Dr Jasbeer Khanuja, Dr. Sameer Saurabh Arora, Dr. Gagan Pal Singhin Cardiac Anesthesia helped perform the Heart Transplant surgery successfully.