Brain-dead Mumbai driver's family hadn't heard of organ donation, but helped save 9 lives on counselling

MUMBAI: Last week, Vilas Patil, 36, a truck driver from Jalgaon, sustained a severe head injury after falling from his truck while loading it at Goregaon. He was taken to a local hospital and transferred to J J Hospital, but his condition did not improve. Worried doctors summoned the family, who arrived and found he had been declared brain dead on Jan 8.

The family had never heard of organ donation before. But the cell at J J Hospital explained it to them, counselled them and was moved as they decided to donate all his organs. Patil ended up giving a fresh lease of life to nine people.

While his heart, liver, kidneys, and pancreas were distributed to organ failure patients registered at hospitals in Mumbai, his lungs were transplanted into a patient registered in Pune, while the small intestine was sent to Chennai.