{"id":330,"date":"2016-04-26T07:07:59","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T07:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=330"},"modified":"2026-07-17T13:49:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:49:04","slug":"boy-who-lived-organ-donation-india-kidney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=330","title":{"rendered":"The Boy Who Lived"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

D<\/span>arsh is strapped to all kinds of machines in the neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The machines beep softly every now and then, as if giving evidence of life. Six-year-old Darsh, however, gives none, lying there with his eyes tightly shut.<\/p>\n\n

His parents, Prashant and Nisha Jain, linger in the hospital waiting room. It\u2019s been two days. Around them, the heavy silence is broken by the occasional passing nurse. They pace around the sterile room, trying to find ways to distract their persecuted minds into some semblance of calm.<\/p>\n\n

Prashant finds a spot near the blood bank to sit and stare. He\u2019s done with reading most of the \u201cpatient education\u201d brochures lying around. On the wall in front of him, there is a framed picture of a newspaper cut out. He walks close to see that the article is about a child cadaver organ donor case from the same hospital from little over a week ago. A nine-year-old had died after a minor orthopaedic surgery went wrong. Instead of being enraged and demanding retribution, the boy\u2019s parents showed the courage to think about doing some good instead. As Prashant reads this, his eyes wander toward the board of the Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC) office opposite the blood bank.<\/p>\n\n

He has not acknowleged the worst yet, even to himself. Darsh\u2019s death is far from his mind. He has no idea that soon he\u2019d be taking a decision to donate the organs of his son.<\/p>\n\n

But something makes Prashant go in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vivaan was barely one when Darsh died. He\u2019s just learning he had an elder brother.<\/p>\n\n

Pratik Gupta\/ Arr\u00e9<\/p>\n\n

Two portraits of Darsh, in oil, hang in the Jains\u2019 living room. Their younger, three-year-old son is playing on the divan. Vivaan has learned to offer pranaam to these pictures \u2013 of Darsh before and after his mundan \u2013 every time he leaves the house. Vivaan was barely one when Darsh died. He\u2019s just learning he had an elder brother. \u201cAll he knows is, Darsh photo mein hai,\u201d says Prashant, who runs a fancy saree blouse-piece store in suburban Thane.<\/p>\n\n

His wife Nisha walks in with nimbu sherbet for us, an offering we feel uneasy to accept. Nisha and Prashant have replayed events leading to Darsh\u2019s demise and their decision to donate his organs in their minds, to family, friends, and at awareness meets, countless times since February 24, 2014. It wasn\u2019t the kind of story one could listen to nonchalantly, over nimbu pani.<\/p>\n\n

Darsh was a preterm baby. He arrived in the eighth month, weighing only 1.46 kilos. \u201cThis was not unusual in our family. We\u2019d seen 800 gram babies too,\u201d Prashant says, as if to warn me not to think that his son\u2019s death was ever expected. At six months, they felt their son\u2019s growth milestones weren\u2019t as expected in the early months. A brain scan confirmed Periventricular Leukomalacia, a kind of brain injury seen in some premature infants. But the prognosis was far from dire. \u201cDoctors told us things will happen, dheere dheere. It\u2019s not a condition where he\u2019d not live,\u201d says Prashant.<\/p>\n\n

That February, the year Darsh turned six, he caught the flu. Three days after his viral fever episode, Darsh slept in longer than usual, and he had to be cajoled to wake up for dinner, one he never finished. A sip of water he took began to run out of his nose, and he seemed to be losing consciousness. They called the doctor, who asked them to immediately rush him to a fully equipped hospital, where he had to be admitted to the NICU, and put on a ventilator. \u201cHe never woke up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Five days after he was admitted to the NICU, Darsh was pronounced brain dead.<\/p>\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n

Organ donation in India is a subject rife with stigma. Even as awareness of the humanitarian nature of the gesture appeals to people, what stands in the way is the idea of cutting into a loved one\u2019s body. But more than that, what stands in the way is usually family.<\/p>\n\n

When Prasant wandered into the office of the ZTCC and realised the path he had inadvertently set off on, he knew they had to at least consider it. After Darsh\u2019s death, the grieving parents drew strength from the story of the nine-year-old boy, and discussed it with their family doctor, close family, and friends. The fact that two of Prashant\u2019s family friends had suffered kidney failures and one of them had been saved by a transplant, also aided them.<\/p>\n\n

Yet, the thought of having them cut their son to extract his organs was disturbing. \u201cHe\u2019d suffered so much over the last few days \u2013 bruised and swollen, he looked fragile \u2013 we felt horror at imagining them cutting him open.\u201d But then a friend posed one question, \u201cYou are not going to keep your son\u2019s body in a fridge? You will be cremating it. Is that going be less painful than donating his organs?\u201d<\/p>\n\n

That question sealed the decision.<\/p>\n\n

Once it sunk in, Prashant and Nisha worried about what relatives would have to say. \u201cWhat if there\u2019s a community backlash?\u201d They also knew that they would spend the coming months defending their decision to everyone who thought they\u2019d desecrated their son\u2019s body, brutally cutting into it. But they were firm. They backed away from everyone who was against their decision and signed the paperwork to give away Darsh\u2019s liver, kidneys, and eyes. When the time came for the funeral, Prashant requested a full jhubba for Darsh, right upto his chin because he didn\u2019t want any conversation around the cut.<\/p>\n\n

As far as Prashant and Nisha are concerned, the gift of four lives was Darsh\u2019s legacy, and they won\u2019t allow society to question it.<\/p>\n\n