Bengaluru: The family of a 24-year-old engineering student from the city, who has been declared brain dead in Brooklyn, New York, has given its consent for donating all his ‘transplantable’ organs, except his infected lungs, which turned out to be the cause of his death.
Although the family is going through a difficult time and has not yet been able to see their son, Rajeev Naidu’s body, it has done the country proud by its noble gesture of donating his organs to those in need of them in the United States. Rajeev Naidu, lovingly called Karthik by his family, was doing his Masters in Industrial Engineering at the New York University. He fell ill in the last week of February after a snowstorm in New York and was undergoing treatment at the Brooklyn Hospital Centre in Dekalb Avenue , where he had an MR imaging scan on February 27.
“Doctors found that his lungs were infected. Rajeev was vomiting profusely and the vomit had gone into his windpipe and his lungs, choking him. He did not breathe for a while and the oxygen supply to his brain was disrupted, causing brain death,” said Rajeev’s cousin, adding that there could have been some delay in taking him to the hospital where cardio-pulmonary resuscitations (CPRs) were attempted several times before he was declared brain dead.
“The entire family spoke to Rajeev on FaceTime on February 20,” said the cousin, revealing that he called his mother the next morning on his birthday, February 21, when he turned 24. His family was informed about his condition on Thursday and his brother-in-law, Jayanth has left for New York to bring Rajeev’s body back to Bengaluru after donating his organs.
“Rajeev had left for the United States on August 20, last year. He had just finished his first semester and planned to come to Bengaluru during the summer holidays,” the cousin added. He did his Pre-University at the Christ Junior PU Residential College and did his engineering at PES Institute of Technology, before leaving for the USA.
NY varsity was supportive
The New York University authorities were very supportive and coordinated with Rajeev’s treatment, said his family members. Rajeev’s body is in the morgue of Brooklyn Hospital Centre awaiting organs donors.
