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 due consent from parents, 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
that to international benchmarks like Spain (48 per million) or the U.S. (35 per million), we
have a lot of potential to ramp up organ donation rates in India. 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, mentioned, Dr.
Gurudutt.