7-Year-Old’s Organ Donation saves 4 Lives, brings new Lease of Life
Bengaluru, February 26, 2026: A 7-year-old child was brought to KIMS Hospitals (Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences), Mahadevapura, in critical condition from an outside hospital following a tragic road traffic accident.
For seven days, a multidisciplinary team led by Dr. Gurudutt A V, Head of Paediatric Services & Paediatric Intensivist – PICU & Paediatric Emergency, and Dr. Raghuram Gopalakrishnan, Director & Senior Consultant, Head of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, continued intensive neuroprotection measures and advanced life support treatments.
However, due to a catastrophic brain injury, the child did not show any improvement despite their best efforts. On February 24, in accordance with the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) guidelines, the clinical team confirmed brain death.
According to Dr. Gurudutt, A V, “In this time of profound grief during their ‘darkest moment,’ the parents volunteered to donate organs to give a second chance of life for multiple recipients. After obtaining the necessary consent from the parents, the Government of Karnataka, through SOTTO, coordinated and retrieved two corneas, two kidneys, one liver, and four heart valves. Through this profound act of generosity, four lives were transformed.
“India’s current donation rate stands at a mere 0.8 per million population. Compared with international benchmarks such as Spain (48 per million) or the U.S. (35 per million), India has significant potential to ramp up organ donation rates. While 250,000 people die annually from organ-related diseases, and 150,000 cases of brain death occur, sadly, only 1200 successful deceased organ retrievals were done in 2025 in our country, stated “Dr. Narayana Swamy Moola, Director of Intensive Care at KIMS Hospitals, Mahadevapura.
Paediatric donations account for only 6% of the total organ retrievals. This hurdle is likely due to high emotional bonding when it comes to child death. We need to bridge the gap by treating parents with empathy, repeated counselling by the treating team, and increasing the awareness regarding transparent, government-led organ donation drives, as mentioned by Dr. Gurudutt.
