HYDERABAD, 18 December 2004 — K. Venkatesh, a man suffering from terminal illness who had sought to donate his organs, died yesterday morning without his last wish being fulfilled.
For the 25-year-old man suffering from fatal muscular dystrophy, the end came at 4.45 a.m. with a cardiac seizure, Dr. V. Sreekant, head of neurological department at the Global Hospital said.
His mother K. Sujata said “it was very painful for him that he could not get his wish fulfilled.”
He could only leave his eyes behind to bring light to someone’s life. His eyes were donated to the Chiranjeevi Trust run by Chiranjeevi, a renowned Telugu film hero.
Dr. Sreekant said that Venkatesh’s lungs had been badly affected and he was having great difficulty in respiration.
“The blood pressure had also dropped and despite our best efforts and administering four doses of medicine, we could not increase the blood pressure,” he explained.
Venkatesh’s case had caught international attention as the disabled youth had initially pleaded for euthanasia so that his organs did not get infected and could be useful for other needy persons.
But when the doctors told the mother that such a request was not legal in India, a petition was moved in the Andhra Pradesh High Court on behalf of Venkatesh seeking permission to donate his organs. A medical committee set up by the High Court refused permission on the ground that Human Organ Transplants Act permits organ donation only in case of brain death and not in case of ‘cardiac death.’
Dr. Sreekant heaped praise on him. “He was courageous and a communicator even when all his organs were failing,” he said on television.
Venkatesh was diagnosed as suffering from Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy at the age of 6 and by 11 years, he had become completely disabled and had to move only on the wheelchair. Doctors say that only males are afflicted by this crippling genetic neurological disorder and by the late teens or twenties, the patient dies.
