A family of content consisting of Papa, Mumma, four daughters, and a son. Our parents never stated their daughters as Beti, they instead call Betu as they never believed in tagging a child as a daughter or a son, though we come from the north (Rajasthan), whereby daughters tend to get married at a young age after leaving their studies halfway. We are highly privileged to have such parents who kept us ahead of such norms, who gave us the best of educational facilities, pushed us to participate in various activities like sports, public speeches, theatres, and various extracurriculars. They gave us the freedom to understand the world and at the same time to keep grounded over our cultural roots. My childhood was like every other kid who would cry for things and finally get them.
Life was flowing in fluency until 6th March 2015. The day when Dad was first hospitalized as he was diagnosed with jaundice which didn’t get detected easily. He was getting treated with ill medications and we were under an impression that he is getting better. Things seemed to get deteriorated. Thus, we shifted Dad to various hospitals to not take any sort of chance for his health. He was later diagnosed with liver cirrhosis whereby 85% of his liver was damaged. Fortunately, we met God like Dr. Abha Nagral, Hepatologist under whom further treatment was carried on for another 3years. As the liver is the only organ that cannot be repaired when it’s damaged, Dad was at the final stage of the disease.
In conclusion, Doctor advised for Liver Transplant in January 2017 as the only option of survival. She asked us to discuss this with our relatives and extended families.
Without giving a second thought we took to the table to go ahead with the surgery as we were running short of time, and, we didn’t have any of our relatives shouldering us during this crisis. Well, this surgery stands more perilous as compared to kidney or any such transplant as humans have just one liver and the part of that liver needs to be donated. Thus, chopping down a liver into two different parts and placing them inside the bodies make the process riskier.
The procedure to get the donor for a recipient is a tedious job to do. We had to first register Dad’s name in various government lists whereby a huge volume of recipients was already waiting for their turn to get the organ. But at the same time, we couldn’t wait till his turn as he was crossing down his final stage of the disease.
There were many sleepless nights when Dad had to get admitted to emergency wards. The hospital was like a second home for him staying almost 8-9 months in the entire year. The doctor then suggested the only way out which was getting him a living donor.
The moment we got to know that one of us from the family eligible can be the donor, I got a gut feeling of becoming his eligible and fit donor as I was always into fitness and sports. But to be a donor, one needs to get through around 12-14 tests from head to toe to find the suitability, which I fortunately passed. This wasn’t just enough, we had to clear out numerous legal formalities and documentations by visiting the police station, court, lawyers, and attending management meetings with the hospital. It was for the declaration no one forced me to opt as a donor and was my voluntary decision.
Arranging finance was a bit difficult but definitely not impossible. We spent all the family savings on the treatment in the last 2.5 years prior to the surgery. Thus, we had a sell-off of one of our possessions. Amount received was not enough and so we started visiting various Trusts and Foundations. There is usually a belief amongst people that these foundations make you take thousands of rounds and many a time even then you won’t cater the help. But, that’s not really true, at least in our case. Yes, we roamed around at many places but we also got the support. Even the minor support from various sources when added together makes an ocean of support. Thankfully, Tata Foundation and Reliance Foundation turned in for financial assistance. We visited their offices and raised request for financial support. We had to submit few reports and documents claiming father’s medical position and hospital’s request letter stating the details of illness, quotation of surgery.
Dad was already there in the hospital and I was admitted a day prior to the surgery. When I visited him in the same patient clothes as he was wearing, he had a wide smile. That was the first time after such long years we saw him happy though he was in hallucination all during those times.
7th June 2017, the transplant day. I didn’t sleep the entire night and was eagerly waiting for the sunrise. Before the morning, my siblings and friends dropped in to give courage and support. Nurses got me ready in green operation robe and took me to the operation theatre @ 8 am sharp. The journey from the room towards OT was immensely exciting and emotional and full of hopes of Dad getting recovered and back to his wife and kids. Badi Di (elder sister) accompanied me. She was constantly filling me with courage and faith.
That was the moment I realized how fortunate and blessed I am to have this family who stands by me in every storm. The only regret I had in my mind as I haven’t met Mumma before getting in the OT as she was accompanying Dad in his room. As it was stated that there’s no guarantee of recipient or donor’s survival post-transplant, I intensely prayed Bhagwaan Ji (God) to gift Dad to Mumma who strived so hard for him, who stayed up infinite restless nights to take care of him, who never showed her tears in front of her kids and husband just to keep everyone motivated and shower courage. She without a doubt, deserves to be with him for all seven births.
It took 12 hours for Dad’s surgery and 10 hours for mine. I was so dying for his surgery to be successful. And the moment I got to know; I was ecstatic. Since then, there’s never a moment when my family and friends don’t feel proud of me. The bonding amongst the family got stronger and healthier day by day.
Society didn’t fail to criticize the decision of me donating my liver to Dad. Society is far off thing, even our relatives would murmur to Mumma stating “How can you leave your daughter to die?”, “Who will marry your daughter?”, “What if she gets pregnancy issues?”. Mumma was all used to keep on thinking about the answers to such questions. We later confiscated our parents’ cell phones and made them quit talking to the outside world. And let the things happened as per the plan.
It was my dad’s family friend Mr. Apte, Dr. Pawar, our friends who were actually there for us the whole time, long midnights, 24X7. Most importantly, our world-class expertized Doctor’s team we had – Dr. Abha Nagral, Dr. Vikram Raut, Dr. Darius Mirza, and Dr. Suresh. I would like to heartily thank them for every small and big effort they have put in during this journey. This got easier and more possible to cross by because of these kind humans.
I always thought of what I can do to make my Family proud as all our parents usually give us examples of our surrounding kids and compare their successes with us. But here, I didn’t have to study really hard or get a job in a multi-national company to make my parents proud of me. I just worked on an opportunity of kindness and fortunately got to contribute my bit for my parents.
Now, I feel immensely pleased when Papa proudly says to his friends “Betu Ho Toh Aisi Ho”.
The moral being: “It’s The Act of Humanity, Not Gender, That Matters”
We all can become superheroes here. Just a pinch of kindness, humanity, and concern is all we need. Our act of organ donation can create a huge positive difference in someone’s life. Without a doubt, this would make us immortal in this world even after our existence. How wonderful can it be…!
ACT LIKE A HERO… BE A HERO…!!!
