On Saturday, November 25, a 36-year-old man’s organs were successfully transferred to Ernakulam from Thiruvananthapuram’s Kerala Institute of Medical Science (KIMS) hospital, after he was declared brain dead. The deceased Selvin Shekhar’s heart, kidney, and pancreas were transferred via air in a state government helicopter.  

A native of Kanyakumari, Selvin was a staff nurse in Tamil Nadu, who sought medical treatment at KIMS on November 21. He suffered a cerebral haemorrhage, following which the hospital declared him brain dead on 24 November. Thereafter, Selvin’s wife Geetha, also a staff nurse in Tamil Nadu, decided to donate his organs.

While his heart will be donated to 16-year-old Harinarayananan at Lisie Hospital, in Ernakulam, one of his kidneys and his pancreas will be donated to a patient in Aster Medcity. The other  kidney will go to a patient in KIMS Cochin, and his eye will be donated to two patients in an eye hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. 

The transfer of his organs from Thiruvananthapuram to Ernakulam took four minutes, and the air ambulance reached Ernakulam’s Bolgatty helipad at around 11.21 am. From there, the organs were transported to the respective hospitals via road.

Harinarayanan, the recipient of Selvin’s heart, was diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy at the Lise Hospital almost six months ago. His elder brother was a survivor of the same medical condition, and doctor Jose Chacko Periyappuram and will handle the transplant. “His condition is critical now and I am expecting him to be cured after the surgery. I express my gratitude and love to the family, police, and the Kerala government. His doctors have shared their hope with us”, Harinarayanan’s father Satheesan told the media.

The organ donation was facilitated by the Kerala State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (K-SOTTO) with police aid for traffic control both at Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam.