MUMBAI -: Mention her mother-in-law and Gayatri Avadh starts crying. Not that 65-year-old Kaleeyabai is a tormentor of a mother-in-law as portrayed in countless saas-bahu serials. Gayatri is, in fact, lucky because Kaleeyabai didn’t think twice before giving her an invaluable gift: one of her kidneys.
“My mother-in-law is so good that I am weeping in gratitude,” said Gayatri, 32, through her mask, thanking her “good fortune”. The young mother of two was diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease last year.
The duo from Nashik taluka’s Palashigaon underwent their respective donor-recipient operations at Jaslok Hospital on Pedder Road on July 6.
Organ donation is among the most difficult propositions in the country. Not only is there poor awareness, the fact that there was a flourishing illegal bazaar of organs until recently makes organ donation a grey zone in India. Statistics reveal a grim picture about kidney disease: while over 1 lakh patients are newly diagnosed with kidney failure every year, less than 10% get any kind of treatment for the condition and barely 4,000 kidney transplants are carried out across India.
She has young kids to raise: Saas
Against this backdrop, Gayatri seems lucky. Despite living two hours from Nashik city, she was promptly diagnosed when she was rushed in a critical condition from Palashigaon to Malegaon and Nashik thereafter some 12 months ago. “Doctors told us it would be difficult for her. She survived, but the weekly dialysis thereafter has been painful,” said Kaleeyabai, who was discharged from Jaslok Hospital a week back.
Seeing her daughter-in-law’s pain as well as her young grandchildren, Kaleeyabai decided to give her a kidney. “She is younger than me. She has young children to bring up. She is my son’s wife. How could I not help her?” she asked. Her son wanted to donate one of his kidneys to his wife, but Kaleeyabai stopped him. “My daughter too wanted to give a kidney to her sister-in-law, but they have young families to look after. I couldn’t let them donate one of their kidneys,” she added.
