Brain-dead 7-year-old boy’s organs to give new lease of life to six patients in Kerala

A seven-year-old boy, who was declared brain-dead following a road traffic accident, has become one of the youngest organ donors in Kerala after his family came forward to donate his organs.

Lokineni Yaashvan, a native of Tirumalagiri district in Hyderabad who was residing in Radhapuram taluk of Tirunelveli district, was crossing the road on his bicycle at Anuvijay Township on the night of June 29 when he was hit by an ambulance.

The seriously injured child was rushed to a nearby health centre immediately and was shifted the same night to the critical care unit at KIMSHEALTH, Thiruvananthapuram.

With brainstem death confirmed on July 5, his parents, Lokineni Raghu and Sowmya Papparao, expressed their willingness to donate his organs.

On Monday morning, the Kerala Network for Organ Sharing, with the help of the State police, arranged a green corridor for one of the kidneys to be transported from Thiruvananthapuram to IQRAA Hospital in Kozhikode, where the organ will be transplanted into a 17-year-old boy from Kannur suffering from end-stage renal disease.

Six organs — both kidneys, the liver, the corneas and the heart valve — are being transplanted into patients awaiting organs for a fresh lease of life in various parts of the State.

The liver is being transplanted into a patient at KIMSHEALTH, while one of the kidneys is being transplanted into a four-year-old child from Kottayam at the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram.

Both corneas were retrieved by the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology, and the heart valve by Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology.