Kolkata: The heart and two kidneys of a 37-year-old Thane resident who was declared brain dead in a Kolkata hospital are set to save the lives of at least three in the city. The procedure to transplant deceased Akash Vijay Naidu’s donated organs into three patients across three different hospitals in the city was on till the last reports came in. With this 15th donation, the figure for deceased organ donations stands only two short of that in 2025, when the state logged 17 donations, the highest for the state.According to sources, Naidu, who originally hailed from Maharashtra’s Thane, was at his in-laws’ place in Gobardanga to celebrate Durga Puja. Married to Munmun Mitra, a nurse from Gobardanga, Naidu had adopted Bengal as his second home and would visit his in-laws often. A blasting officer with a US company, family members said Naidu also had an office in Kolkata which he would visit often.Sources said on Oct 29 night, Naidu was riding a two-wheeler when the bike skidded on hitting a speed breaker in Gobardanga. He was rushed to a small medical unit nearby first and then to Viva City Hospital. Due to the serious head injury, doctors referred Naidu to Apollo Multispeciality Hospital (AMH).Despite intensive care, doctors informed the family that the patient was showing all symptoms of brain death. When the confirmatory test threw up a positive result, Apollo doctors declared him brain dead on Tuesday.“When Apollo doctors explained to us the concept of brain death and the possibility of organ donation, we all agreed to the same,” said his cousin Anup Naidu who rushed to Kolkata from his Jabalpur workplace on hearing about the accident.During evaluation, doctors found the heart and kidneys viable for transplant. On finding matching recipients, ROTTO (East) allocated the heart to RN Tagore Hospital while the two kidneys were allocated to patients in IPGMER-SSKM Hospital and Apollo where the deceased was declared brain dead.“Our entire family has strong Bengal ties. While my grandmother is a Bengali, my aunt, Akash’s mother, is a Bengali along with his own wife. He will now continue to live in three persons in the city that he loved so much. This is something that gives us solace,” said the cousin brother.Last year ended with 17 donations, a record high for the state. With two months remaining to bring the curtain down on 2026, those in the organ donation movement are hopeful of surpassing the previous year’s number.“Since the number has started showing a positive surge, we feel we should have a comprehensive list of prospective recipients,” said VM Swamy, of Bengal Organ Donation Society.This donation comes only four days after the 14th donation in which the family of Chumi Roy donated her organs after she was declared brain dead at Ruby General Hospital.
