They were crestfallen when treating doctors informed them that their 15-year-old daughter was passing away.

She was suffering from a tumour in the brain and despite the best efforts of the treating doctors at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital here, she couldn’t be revived. It happened more than a year ago.

While shedding tears outside the ICU, the parents took the decision to donate their daughter’s kidneys so that lives of some others could be saved.

“Our daughter passed away on May 17 last year and we took the decision to donate her kidneys so that others could live,” Mr. Sapan Kumar Bindhani and Dr. Sunita Pradhan, parents of the girl said at a program organised by the hospital to mark the Indian Organ Donation Day on Thursday.

The couple was felicitated on the occasion for their brave decision.

The two kidneys of the girl went on to save the lives of two patients who were awaiting transplantation.

Dr. Bibhuti Bhushan Nayak, Joint Director of State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTO), who attended the program as chief guest, explained about the importance of organ donation while stressing the need for creating awareness about the same among doctors and members of public.

Dr. Nayak said that organs harvested from a dead person could come to the aid of eight other persons saving their lives. A living person could donate a kidney, a part of the liver or skin. But organs which could be harvested after death included the kidneys, liver, lungs, small intestine, pancreas, eyes, heart, skin, bone and tissues, he said.

Prof. (Dr.) Sanghamitra MIshra, Dean, IMS and SUM Hospital, underlined the importance of organ donation while urging people to consider the same when the need arose.

Prof. Pushparaj Samantasinhar, Medical Superintendent, said that steps were being taken to start robotic surgery in the hospital. A walkathon was organised by the hospital in the morning to mark the occasion.