Last Rites Of Odisha’s 14-Yr-Old Organ Donor Performed With State Honours in Puri

Puri: The last rites of Damayanti, the 14-year-old brain-dead organ donor of Odisha, were performed at Swargadwara in Puri on Saturday with full state honours.

Damayanti, a Class IX student from Keonjhar district, was suffering from chronic kidney disease (CKD) and was under dialysis for the last few months. She suffered a brain stroke and was admitted to AIIMS, Bhubaneswar on February 15. She subsequently went into a coma and was on a ventilator.

As she showed no sign of recovery, the expert committee from the AIIMS declared her brain dead. After her parents, Banita and Dukhabandhu Mahanta, agreed to donate her organs, the hospital made necessary arrangements.

The surgeons in the AIIMS on Friday successfully retrieved her liver and sent it to a hospital in New Delhi through a green corridor facilitated by the Commissionerate Police, airport, and airlines authorities.

Initially, the plan was to send her lungs to a private hospital in Chennai. As she was on a ventilator and the Chennai team detected some defects in her lungs, they returned without taking the organs, Executive Director of AIIMS Ashutosh Biswas had informed.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had earlier declared that the last rites of organ donors will be performed with state honours in recognition of their sacrifice and bravery.

It may be mentioned that in 2020, Odisha government introduced Suraj Award, which was named after a brain-dead organ donor from Ganjam district who had saved six lives. Under the award, kin of organ donors are given Rs 5 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund on World Organ Donation Day on August 13.