Lively Swarna gave lives to many on her death..

“I do not want her to suffer more, that is the reason why I am letting her go,” said Hemalatha as she fought back her tears. Her 19-year-old daughter, a student of Fashion Technology, had crashed through a glass floor panel and hit the ground 20 feet below at her college campus, sustaining serious head injuries.

She was shifted to Columbia Asia Hospital and was in a coma since then. Her classmates had protested and got the management to bear the initial hospital expenses, and had also raised their own funds for her treatment.

As the doctors were preparing to take Swarna off life support on Sunday evening, the only voice that could be heard in the ICU was that of her mother repeating Swarna’s name in hopeless tones. Swarna, except for the fact that her eyes were taped, looked like she was fast asleep. The bruises on her arms from the fall still seemed fresh. In fact, when this reporter visited the hospital, Hemalatha held her hand and asked in a trembling tone, “Do you want to see Swarna?” When she nodded in the affirmative, the mother took her inside the ICU. Swarna appeared to be asleep but the beeping monitor next to her bed, the tubes attached to her body and her taped eyelids pointed to the struggle her body had been through over the past 11 days.

On Friday, the doctors had informed her parents that Swarna’s brain had stopped responding to treatment. Internal bleeding in the brain had put an end to all hopes of her recovery. In other words, Swarna was brain dead. Her mother, who had given birth to Swarna on May 2, 1992, was faced with a decision no parent should have to make: Whether to have Swarna’s life support system unplugged.

Murmuring her daughter’s name over and over again, Hemalatha kissed each finger and toe of her child, just the way it must have been the day Swarna entered the world. The sight was heartrending — made more poignant by the fact that it was Christmas Day — and even the doctors and other medical staff present could not hide their tears. It was then announced that the ventilator would be switched off at 5 pm.

In one last futile gesture, Hemalatha patted her girl’s forehead and called out softly to her, as if hoping that she would open her eyes. She touched her nose gently, and caressed her daughter’s body again and again, knowing that her still-beating heart would stop very soon and with it the last remaining living functions of her body.

Nineteen years after she first held her newborn, Hemalatha Jaswanth kissed her daughter Swarna one last time on Sunday. The doctors attending on her, who had declared her brain dead on Friday, took her off life support as the family could not stand to see her suffer anymore.
In death, the fashion design student will give new hope to other critically-ill patients as her parents have decided to donate her vital organs.

Swarna’s elder brother Swaroop’s face was wet with tears. “She is going away today. Why did she choose to go away on this day? She came to Bangalore of her own choice to study,” he said. Swarna’s father, who had had a knee surgery recently, stayed outside, leaning on a walking stick, unable to console himself or his wife and son.

Harshith, Swarna’s friend, recalling the happier days, “She (Swarna) used to sit behind me in the class. She was talkative, lively and naughty. She was like one of the boys. Once she wore salwaar kameez to college and we were so surprised we told her it was the first time you are looking like a girl.” Harshith said just before the mishap, Swarna had invited her classmates to her house and promised to cook chicken for them. “She even called up her mother, asking for the recipe. Everything changed in minutes.” he said.

But, there’s the consolation that Swarna will continue to live on in the bodies of at least six other people. Her parents have decided to donate her heart, liver, kidney, lungs, corneas and pancreas, which will now be transplanted in donees. The Doctor who was attending to Swarna in the ICU said, “We rarely come across people who are comfortable with the idea of donating organs after death. There are people desperately battling for life who can be saved. Swarna’s parents have shown a humaneness of the highest order with their decision.”

The organs of Swarna Jaswanth, 20, who was declared brain-dead, were successfully transplanted on three recipients on Sunday night.

Source: Bangalore Mirror.