When Raju Joseph Peters died of massive heart attack,being a social worker and resident of Dharavi he must have felt the pain of blind persons and those of suffering from kidney ailments the treatment of which is just too expensive,that is why he willed that his eyes and kidneys should be harvested and implanted in some needy person’s body and the rest of his body should be given for medical studies.Very very noble act but tragically his last wish could not be fulfilled .

When Peter breathed his last at 1 pm the family faced a real hard time .They rang up many hospitals and even rushed to Sion Hospital so that Peter’s cornea could be harvested within six hours of his death,but it was not to be Reason,because of the ongoing strike of Resident Doctors,even when Suvernasthia Hospital rang up an Eye bank at Ghatkopar, they were informed that no Doctors were available.As a specific procedure must be followed for cornea harvesting, and only hospitals registered as retrieval centres can do it.

Though the Sion Hospital’s Dean Dr Sandhya Kamat is saying that an opthalmologist is on duty round the clock and they should have called her or medical officer at duty,that happens only in the ideal situation,ordinery people do not have access to higher ups and thay have to deal with officials at lower levels itself,when once the reply is in negative obviously they would not dare to go against his dictate.

Now His brother has decided to bury peter’s body in protest against his wish to donate it to a medical college for studies,he is too disillusioned by the whole process just saying that since his brother’s last wish could not be fulfilled what is the point of donating his body now.

As it is we are bombarded by appeals to donate organs after death to help those who need them but if someone decides to do so the totally indifferent system does not allow his grieving loved ones to do so thereby they are left with a guilt feeling.
This incident surely gives out wrong message.