They got a donor, now life is back on track

Mohit Singh, 10, hadn’t gone to school for three years. This March, he joined kindergarten. While most of the children gawked at this boy who seemed too big for the class, his parents were just glad he could go.
In 2009, Mohit fell ill with kidney disease. He became frail, passed blood in his urine and had little energy to play. His father Sukhbir Singh, a shopkeeper in Faridabad, took him to a pediatrician who referred him to a private hospital. And then began the long ordeal of this father as he went from one hospital to another, carrying his tired son in his arms. Such visits, gruelling and energysapping, are common for families where a loved one is combating an organ-damaging disease.
Finally, doctors at AIIMS diagnosed the problem. Mohit would need dialysis immediately and, later, a new kidney. Sukhbir struggled through the dialysis costs of Rs 32,000 a month. He also registered for cadaver donation and the wait for a donor began.
It was a long and tortuous wait. “It was a difficult time,” recalls Sukhbir. “I couldn’t go to my shop; my three older children took charge. My monthly income was around Rs 15,000 and losses piled up.” Meanwhile, Mohit’s life was severely constricted. He would play with a tube sticking out of his neck (a temporary line to access blood vessels during dialysis). Sometimes, it would get infected and the pain hard to bear. Finally, on April 6, 2012, Sukhbir got a call at midnight from an AIIMS doctor informing him about a kidney available in Apollo Hospital. He rushed there with Mohit who was operated upon. The transplant set them back by Rs 4.5 lakh.
Today, Mohit is regaining his strength. He is on life-long medicines which cost Rs 12,000 monthly. Sukhbir is just glad he made it. “I will bequeath my shop to him and donate my kidney so that no one suffers like my son.”
For Delhi’s Arjundas Menghaney, 75, the hunt for a liver was shorter: he had to wait just six months. In 2011, he was diagnosed with thirdstage liver disease. “He’d get fever every fortnight, would be constantly tired and his skin darkened,” says Sunil, his son. Sunil’s business was put on hold for six months. Although his blood group matched Arjundas’s, the father preferred to wait for a deceased donor. The family registered him in several hospitals in Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedad and Mumbai.
Finally, they got a liver in July 2012 from a woman who had donated all her organs. The operation was done at Gurgaon’s Medanta. Post-surgery, Arjundas and his wife shifted to an apartment close by and stayed there for four months. “I met him once a week, while my mother and wife Kavita ensured he got homecooked, non-fatty food and lived in a sterile atmosphere,” says Sunil.
Things are back on track now. Arjundas says with a strong baritone, “I go regularly for walks and to office. However, I can’t touch alcohol or smoke. And I have told my family that I would like to donate all my organs, if possible.”
That’s important — tell your family. After all, your organs can be bequeathed only if they allow it.