6-year-old organ donor icon dead
Bhavana Lakshmi was affected by brain tumour one-and-a-half years ago.
Kochi: A six-year-old school student, who triggered a massive organ donation campaign which won the admiration of the Prime Minister himself, has passed away but after giving new life to the ailing.
Bhavana Lakshmi, the second standard student of St Mary’s UP School, South Chittoor, near here, was affected by brain tumour one-and-a-half years ago.
After she was declared brain-dead by doctors at Aster Medcity here on Wednesday, her parents, Murthy and Prasanna, an auto driver-housewife couple, decided to donate her organs.
The transplant surgery was done on Thursday and her liver gave new life to a 51-year-old man from Thrissur while her two kidneys were given to Lakeshore Hospital as per the priority list in Kerala Network for Organ Sharing (KNOS) waitlist.
“She inspired the students of the school to understand the dimensions of organ donation,” says Ms Shajimol K. Thomas, headmistress of the school.
“After she was infected with brain tumour, the school decided to support her treatment by collecting donations. The first surgery was held in December 2014 and a second surgery in July last. At the time of the first surgery, a school parliament was held in which a student asked the question, ‘was it not possible to transplant brain? There the trigger for organ donation awareness was sparked off,” recalls Ms Shajimol.
“Ever since, a series of campaigns were held and more than 200 people were roped in by the students to give their consent for organ donation. Then a huge canvas depicting the map of India was created on which over 2,500 people put their signature in support of organ donation. The campaign was titled ‘Orumayil India’ (United India). A letter requesting measures and giving suggestions to promote organ donation along with this map was sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who congratulated our students in his monthly ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme in October last,” says Ms Shajimol.
Today, as they pay rich tributes to Bhavana, the students of the school have resolved to continue the organ donation campaign along with the siblings of Bhavana, Sreelekshmi, studying in Class II and Akash Krishna, in UKG.