Nine organs of a woman from Hyderabad, who died in a car accident in the United States, were donated successfully, thereby potentially giving a new lease of life to at least nine people who will become recipients of the organs.
25-year-old Charitha Reddy Aella died at the Mercy Health Hackley Campus in Muskegon on Sunday night after an accident in Michigan, that injured a few others. She was working in a software firm in the US and was a native of Secunderabad.
Her sister, Jayanthi Ganugupathi, had begun a GoFundMe page to help the family meet the expenses for her last rites and raised $107,279.
Taking to the page on January 1, Jayanthi shared the latest update, saying, "I am really proud of my sister. Nine viable organs have been retrieved successfully. All your prayers and support and Charitha's helping nature is about to save nine lives. Thanks you all once again for your continuous support. She is a real hero and will be with us forever in different places."
Calling her a 'superhero', the Gift of Life, a non-profit organisation which collected her organs also posted a video.
"We express our condolences to you and your family at this life-changing time and our heart breaks with you. We want to thank your family from the bottom of our hearts because she has saved lives, and she truly is, a superhero," a team from the NGO said, in a message to Charitha's family.
It was last week that Charitha was travelling in a Toyota vehicle with three others, which had pulled over to the right side with its blinkers activated. The police said that a man from Muskegon Heights was travelling on the right lane, and lost control of his car and crashed into the Toyota from behind. The man was later found to be drunk.
Charitha who was sitting in the rear seat received the maximum impact of the crash, and was initially declared brain dead by doctors, before she succumbed to her injuries.
"She was a confident and independent woman who always had a strong faith in herself that anything can be achieved with firm compassion and conviction...No words can express the love she had for her family and friends alike," her sister Jayanthi had written on the GoFundMe page.