Family donates organs of slain Brigadier

New Delhi, Jan 6 (UNI) The organs of Brig Y P Bakshi, who was shot dead at his residence in Meerut on January 4 by unknown assailants, were today donated to the needy, including a serving soldier.

The organs of the war veteran from the Indian Army were retrieved late last night and transplanted till the early hours of today.

Surgical teams at the Army Hospital here 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 for transplantation. One cornea and heart valves have been stored for use on needy recipients.

After the shooting incident, Brig Bakshi was brought to Army Hospital (R&R), Delhi Cantt. However, he was declared brain dead late last evening.

Mrs Kamini Mehta, the daughter of the slain brigadier and her husband, Maj Gen P K Mehta, who has retired recently from the Army, readily agreed to donate the organs of Brig Bakshi so that others in need of various organs could get a lease of life.

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

The mortal remains of the slain brigadier were consigned to flames today.

Commissioned into 5th Battalion of the First Gorkha Rifles, Brig Bakshi raised Fifth Battalion and commanded Fourth Battalion of the same regiment. For his services, he was mentioned in dispatches.

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

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 organised by Army Organ Retrieval and Transplant Authority.

UNI SH SP GC1927