Pune: 21-Year-Old Car Accident Victim’s Organ Donation Saves Six Lives, Including a Baby
Pune, 20th December 2024: The organs of 21-year-old Cheshta Bishnoi, a victim of a car accident near Bhigwan, gave new hope to six patients on Wednesday, including a seven-month-old baby. The recipients were undergoing treatment for various end-stage diseases at a Pune hospital.
The young woman, a trainee pilot at Redbird Flight Training Academy in Baramati, suffered severe injuries when the car she was travelling in with three friends met with an accident on the Baramati-Bhigwan Road in the early hours of December 9. She succumbed to her injuries at a Pune hospital on Tuesday. In a selfless act of compassion, her family decided to donate her organs, including her heart, liver, and kidneys, marking the 67th deceased organ donation under the Pune Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC).
Aarti Gokhale, coordinator of Pune ZTCC, praised the family’s decision, stating, “The decision to donate organs has saved the lives of six people, including a pediatric recipient. After receiving consent from her parents and brother, we followed the guidelines to allocate the organs. All the recipients are currently stable.”
Dr. Prasad Muglikar, the medical director at Ruby Hall Clinic, shared details of the transplant process. “The donor was brought to our hospital in critical condition. Despite exhaustive efforts from our medical team, her condition worsened, and we could not save her. However, five of her organs were successfully transplanted, saving six lives in total. The liver was split and transplanted into two individuals.”
The donor’s liver was transplanted into both a seven-month-old baby and a 60-year-old man with decompensated chronic liver disease through a split liver transplant. Her heart was transplanted into a 41-year-old woman suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, while one of her kidneys went to a 61-year-old woman with chronic kidney disease. The second kidney and pancreas were transferred to a different hospital in the city, where they were successfully transplanted into another patient.
After the organ donation, the donor’s body was airlifted back to her village Khetolai in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, for her final rites. Her family’s heroic decision has given new life to several individuals, a lasting legacy from a young woman taken too soon.
