14 July,2010 12:22 PM IST | | Agencies
A four-day-old baby here probably became the youngest person in the country to donate her organs.
Kishore Kumar is a young Revenue Inspector in Mahabubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh and his wife Hymavathi delivered a pre-term baby girl on July 8 at a city hospital.
Although the baby was normal for two days, she developed complications like high blood pressure, doctors at the hospital said, adding they had to ventilate the infant. They also informed the parents that the chances of her survival were remote.
Tragedy struck the baby's parents when she died on the morning of July 12. However, an uncle of the baby, also named Kishore Kumar, who is a journalist with a Telugu daily, broached the subject of organ donation with the baby's father.
The scribe took initiative to call Mohan Foundation, an NGO working on organ donation. Its CEO Raghuram found on enquiry that the infant's heart valves and eyes can be used. The journalist convinced the infant's parents and other family members to donate her organs to help needy children who are born with birth defects, Raghuram said.
The baby's parents agreed and the child was shifted to Innova hospital in Secunderabad where her heart valves and eyes were retrieved under sterile conditions, he added. Some children are born with absence or under-developed heart valves. The organs retrieved from the baby would help such children, he said.
