Organs of War Veteran shot in Meerut Transplanted- Many to Benefit from the Noble Gesture

New Delhi: Sun Jan 6th:In a rare case of organ donation, the organs from war veteran brigadier from the Indian Army were retrieved late last night and transplanted till the early hours today.

Brigadier YP Bakshi was shot in head at his residence in Shastri Nagar in Meerut on Friday, 4 January by unknown assailants.

Commissioned into 5th Battalion of the 1st Gorkha Rifles, he raised 5th Battalion and commanded 4th Battalion of the same regiment. For his services, he was mentioned in dispatches.

Brig Bakshi was brought to Army Hospital (R&R), Delhi Cantt, after the shooting incident in Meerut. However he was declared brain dead late last evening. Mrs Kamini Mehta the daughter of the slain brigadier and her husband, Maj Gen PK Mehta, who has retired recently from the Army, readily agreed to donate the organs of Brig Bakshi so that other in need of various organs could get a lease of life.

Being a medico legal case, the procedure of organ retrieval required the requisite legal clearances from the police departments of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

According to Maj Gen OP Mathew, Commandant of Army Hospital (R & R), the entire operation was coordinated by the Armed Forces Organ Retrieval & Transplantation Authority (AORTA) with active cooperation from Dr Jagdish Prasad, Medical Superintendent of Safdarjang Hospital and Dept of Forensic Medicine along with police officials from New Delhi and Meerut.

Surgical teams at Army Hospital worked in tandem to transplant the liver into a serving soldier with cirrhosis and one kidney into a 14 year old. The second kidney has been sent to AIIMS transplantation. One cornea and heart valves have been stored for use on needy recipients.

The Armed Forces have been promoting organ donation and over 1000 serving personnel, veterans and their families have already pledged to donate their organs. This was the third medico-legal case and the seventh multi-organ donation organized by Army Organ Retrieval and Transplant Authority.
The mortal remains of the slain brigadier were consigned to flames at noon today.

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