Brain dead boy, 9, gives new life to 5 children

Surat resident Sameer Mistry was left brain dead after he fell off a flight of stairs while playing; his parents donated his kidneys, liver and eyes

A brain dead nine-year-old boy from Bilimora of Navsari district gave new life to five transplant patients after his parents donated his kidneys, liver and eyes as the child had no hope of recovering from his deteriorated medical condition.

Sameer Mistry, 9, a Class IV student who was playing near his father's shop on October 21, fell off a flight of stairs and suffered a grievous head injury in the accident. When a CT Scan was carried out, it showed brain haemorrhage on the right side of his head leading to brain death during treatment at a private hospital.

After being declared brain dead at Apple Hospital in Surat, NGO Donate Life was contacted on request of the boy's parents Alpesh and Sonal Mistry, who were aware that donation of their son's organs would help give new life to other children.

Dr Pranjal Modi, one of the foremost transplant surgeons in Gujarat currently serving at the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO), carried out the surgeries that led to Sameer's two kidneys and liver being transplanted into other children in need of the organs. The three patients are now stable, informed officials.

Shades of Nicholas Green

After an incident where the organs of a 7-year-old American boy Nicholas Green who was mistakenly shot and killed by armed robbers while vacationing in Messina in Italy in 1994, were donated to seven recipients in Italy itself by his parents, organ donation tripled in the country which had the lowest organ donation rate in Europe.

Italy has a system in place where when you go to get your driver's license, you can opt out of organ donation. But if you do so, you are warned that if you ever need an organ in the future, you will not get it.