IN A noble deed, the family of a dying veteran soldier donated his organs to give “gift of life” to others including the wife of a serving soldier. In a first-of-its-kind development in Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS), the Army Organ Retrieval and Transplant Authority (AORTA) coordinated an inter-hospital transfer of a heart for transplant on February 11. AFMS is a deemed state as per Transplant Act 2014 (THOA) and Director General Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS) has been vested with powers to share donated organs between its various military hospitals, said Director, AORTA, Brig Rajat Shukla, VSM, the agency which coordinates the allocation of donated organs in armed forces in close liaison with national agency NOTTO, in an official statement on Sunday. The organ donor was a 40-year-old veteran who had sustained a road accident on February 8 in Bhind, Madhya Pradesh. He was taken to local civil hospital where he was put on life support and was brought to Army Hospital, Research & Referral (AHRR), New Delhi on February 9. He had severe head injury and was declared brain dead on the morning of February 11 by the critical care team of AHRR. The family of the veteran voluntarily decided for multiple organ donation, said Lt Col Anita Nair, the transplant coordinator with AORTA at AHRR. A 29-year-old wife of a serving soldier, who was suffering from a weak heart, was waiting for a suitable heart organ donor for past six months at the Pune-based Army Institute of Cardiothoracic Sciences (AICTS).
