Bhubaneswar, February 15: In a bid to encourage organ donation, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday, February 15, announced that last rites of those who save the lives of others by donating their organs will be done with state honour. Last year, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin had announced that his government would accord full state honours to the funeral of organ donors from the state.
The Odisha government has been encouraging people of the state to donate organs. In 2019, CM Patnaik had announced an annual award in the name of "Suraj" of Ganjam district, whose parents' donated six vital organs of their brain-dead son to save lives of others. The Chief Minister had also met Suraj's parents and announced an award of Rs 5 lakh in recognition of their inspiring act.
How Suraj's Organs Saved Lives:
Suraj was a resident of Bhanjanagar in Ganjam district of Odisha. On October 29, 2019, while he was working in Surat, he sustained critical injuries in a road accident. Despite treatment by the doctors, his condition did not improve and he was declared brain dead on November 2.
Suraj's father, Babuli Sethi, and mother, Gitanjali Sethi then decided to donate his organs - heart, liver, kidneys, and eyes, in a bid to save the life of others. His heart was carried by plane to Fortis Hospital in Mumbai and was transplanted in the body of a woman, both his kidneys and the liver were transplanted in the bodies of three persons in Ahmedabad and his eyes were donated to two persons in Surat.
