The family of a 23-year-old man who suffered injuries in a road accident on Thursday and was declared brain-dead on Saturday decided to donate his organs on Sunday.

Puskar Pal’s kidneys and liver were retrieved at SSKM Hospital, where he was admitted early on Thursday.

An official of the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (ROTTO) said one of Puskar’s kidneys would go to a 52-year-old woman at Command Hospital, and the other to a 35-year-old man at SSKM Hospital. His liver would go to a 47-year-old woman at SSKM Hospital, the official said.

“He was riding a two-wheeler, and there were two pillion riders. A lorry came in front of the two-wheeler, which skidded. His head hit a post. He was first taken to Amta Rural Hospital, and then shifted to SSKM Hospital around 1.30am on Thursday,” said Swadesh Pal, Puskar’s cousin.

When doctors declared him brain-dead on Saturday and asked the family if they wanted to donate Puskar’s organs, they agreed.

“We will feel happy if he lives on by donating his organs. Someone else will live a healthy life,” said Swadesh.

Puskar is survived by his parents and sister, said Swadesh.

“The organs have been retrieved and the transplant surgeries have started,” a ROTTO official said on Sunday evening.

A senior ROTTO official said doctors conduct specific examinations that confirm that the brain has become “irreversibly dead”. “But the person’s other organs are still functioning because the heart is still pumping,” said the official, who is also a doctor.

Puskar is the seventh organ donor in Bengal this year.

ROTTO officials have flagged that the rate of cadaveric organ donation in Bengal is low. Cadaveric organ donation is very low in India, barring states in south India and some in western India.

Cadaveric organ donations had picked up pace in 2018. But the number of donations per year has shown a marginal rise between then and now, ROTTO’s director said.

There were 13 organ donors in 2018 and 14 in 2024.

The officials said there is an abundance of transplant surgeons, but the challenge is in convincing family members of the brain-dead person to donate organs in the moments when they have yet to absorb that a sudden accident has killed their kin.