The organs of a 12-year-old boy, who died after a kidney transplant for which he had waited a year, were donated on Tuesday when he was declared brain dead following a cardiac arrest.
The parents of Umang Galada voluntarily approached the hospital where he was declared brain dead and expressed their wish to donate his organs, if viable, to help others in need.
Umang’s mother, Jyoti Galada, told The Telegraph that she understood the pain and anxiety of families waiting for an organ transplant. “If my son’s organs can give life to someone, we would be the happiest,” she said.
“My son was undergoing dialysis, yet he never lost his zeal for life. He loved playing outdoors and meeting friends, but all of that had to stop to avoid the risk of infection. At home, he was still so full of life. We want his organs to give life to someone else,” Jyoti said over the phone as doctors were harvesting Umang’s eyes and liver at the Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI).
Umang had undergone the long-awaited kidney transplant at CMRI on May 15. But he suffered a cardiac arrest the following day, said a doctor at the hospital.
An official of the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (ROTTO) said Umang’s liver was harvested and would be donated to a recipient. His corneas were given to Sankar Nethralaya in Calcutta.
Umang, a student at South City International School, had been healthy and active like his friends until about a year ago. “He used to play cricket, but suddenly he became fatigued, couldn’t run, or even complete his warm-up. We first consulted an orthopaedic specialist, who found nothing wrong. Then we went for a master health check-up, where his creatinine levels were found to be unusually high,” said Ujjawal Galada, Umang’s father.
Doctors diagnosed Umang with advanced-stage chronic kidney disease and said he would need an organ transplant. “The search for a kidney went on for a year,” said Jyoti.
Umang was admitted to CMRI for the transplant last week. “The surgery went well, but he developed cardiac arrhythmia — a condition where the heartbeat becomes irregular — which led to cardiac arrest,” said Pradip Chakrabarti, head of renal transplant at CMRI.
A series of tests was conducted, as per protocol, to confirm brain death. When the results came, the hospital informed the family, who told the hospital they wanted to donate Umang’s organs.
The family wished to donate as many organs as possible, but the heart and kidneys could not be used because of Umang’s cardiac arrest and chronic kidney disease.
“In an extraordinary act of generosity and compassion, his family consented to donate his organs, giving the gift of life to others in need. CMRI honoured the young boy with a guard of honour,” said Sombrata Roy, unit head of CMRI.
This was only the sixth cadaveric organ donation in Bengal this year.
A senior ROTTO official said that deceased organ donations have remained low in the state. While there was a spike in 2018, the number since then has shown only a marginal increase. There were 13 donations in 2018 and 14 in 2024.
