The heart of a 16-year-old boy who died in a road accident in Chennai, South India, on Wednesday now beats inside a 9-year-old girl. In a precious instance of humanism rising amidst a tragedy, the teenager’s doctor parents took this brave decision of donating his heart, eyes, kidneys, liver and bone marrow after he was declared brain dead. The parents said they did not want to burn their son’s body and decided to extend this gift of life to others who were in dire need of it. While his other organs were preserved in various specialty hospitals, the boy’s heart was rushed in a police vehicle from Apollo Hospitals in Teynampet to Frontier Lifeline in Mogappair in a record time of 11 minutes. Chennai Traffic Police facilitated the move by ensuring green lights at every signal.

The teenager’s heart suited the 9-year-old girl because her heart had swollen (dilated cardiomyopathy) and the chest cavity had expanded to fit in the donor heart. According to medical experts the harvested organ has to be transplanted within four hours and the sooner it is done the better the outcome.