Hope and happiness harvested from grief

Dr Krishna Gopal was an integral part of Frontier Lifeline’s Cardio Thoracic Surgery Team. An extremely knowledgeable person who’s surgical expertise had been astonishing. Above all he was a fantastic human being, very smart and always smiling. 

Apart from performing routine surgeries, he was heading the heart harvest team. He had harvested many donor hearts and helped many heart transplants.

On this fateful day, he fell in his residence in Madurai. Since the brain matter was completely damaged he was declared brain dead on 30th December 2009.

Dr Krishna Gopal’s parents were doctors and his sister was also a doctor. None of them could accept this tragedy at such an early age of just 41 years! His wife Mrs Priya Gopal was a young, intelligent and beautiful woman. Having been raised in Singapore, she worked as Frontier Lifeline’s PRO. Because of her principled upbringing she was fully committed to the hospital and her contribution was immense. Apart from being a PRO, she was also an excellent writer. They had 2 young children, a boy and a girl. It was a very difficult time for the family. 

“Being close to the entire family, the tragedy was unbearable. I wished to keep his heart beating even after his death, but I did not have the courage to request his family for the harvest of his heart. However, Mrs Priya Gopal understood my mind and accepted the heart harvest. From Madurai we brought his heart to Frontier Lifeline by air, and donated it to Mr Umesh of Pune, a young man of 21 years. He had a successful and uneventful transplant and is doing very well.

Probably, this is the first time a Cardiac Surgeon who was heading the Heart Harvest Team had donated his own heart for transplanting, in the same unit where he was working. 

However, I am awed by the young lady’s courage, who at the time of maximum grief could think for another’s benefit. I do not understand God’s design. Are these people really Gods? Nobody, at the peak suffering can think of anything other than the own current situation. However, to get the dead body of the beloved from Madurai, allow it to be operated upon to harvest the heart for the benefit of some other human being whom she has never seen in her life, is an act of unparalleled charity. This is testimony to the fact that God lives truly in the Human soul.”

After this, Mrs Gopal was interviewed and was requested by many organizations to promote Organ Donation. She never minded the trouble of traveling across the country to promote awareness of organ donation at the Rotary, NGOs, schools and colleges and most of the cities in our country.