Kochi:Bishop Jacob Muricken walked out of hospital on June 8, a week after he created history as the first prelate to donate his kidney to a struggling Hindu youth.
“I am very happy. I feel renewed,” Bishop Muricken said shortly before he was discharged from the Lakeshore hospital in Kochi after the transplant that made headlines worldwide. “Jesus spoke of giving life and I have experienced it,” added the 53-year old auxiliary bishop of Palai diocese in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
The bishop’s kidney was transplanted on E Sooraj as ‘an act of mercy in the year of mercy.’
“I met Sooraj and the family. They are very happy,” pointed out the bishop as he came out for a media interaction, flanked by Rashmi, wife of Sooraj, and Father Davis Chiramel, founder director of the Kidney Federation of India (KFI), who facilitated the historic kidney donation.
“We thank God for this,” said Rashmi, married to Sooraj four years ago, when asked for her reaction to the transplant. Access to Sooraj denied to visitors as he is in the ICU of the hospital.
The import of Bishop Muricken’s act was epitomised in the reaction of Sooraj, an employee of an ayurvedic hospital who has been struggling for life with three dialysis a week since his both kidneys were found dysfunctional from late 2014.
“It is incredible I am receiving the kidney of a bishop. This is beyond words,” Sooraj said from the hospital bed hours before the June 1 surgery.
“Initially, we were told that a priest will be donating his kidney to me. But only during the matching tests at the hospital two weeks before, I met the bishop and was thrilled to know he was the donor. It is a divine blessing,” added Sooraj.
Bishop Muricken said the idea of donating kidney occurred to him when he heard Fr Chiramel speaking at a Bible convention two years ago challenging Christians to give life to others literally by kidney donation.
“When the Pope declared the Year of Mercy, I decided it was the best time to do it,” said the prelate, who then contacted Father Chiramel six months ago to inform his plan.
Fr Chiramel’s kidney federation has been facilitating kidney donations to the needy.
A school drop-out, 30-year-old Sooraj hails from a poor family. Following the death of his father Unnikrishnan due to snake bite, Sooraj has to care for his ailing mother Parvathy and wife Rasmi.
Sooraj’s brother-in-law Unnikrishnan Kotteri said that the entire family is ‘amazed’ by the bishop’s act.
“This will help strengthen (religious) harmony,” pointed out Kotteri, a Hindu school teacher at Kottackal, 150 km north of Kochi, Kerala’s commercial capital.
Father Chiramel says the bishop’s act has removed the fear among the religious to donate kidney. “This will be big boost for the movement,” said the Trichur archdiocesan priest, who became an enigma after he donated his kidney to Gopinathan Chakkamadathil, a Hindu electrician, in 2009.
Father Chiramel, who has made kidney donation a movement travelling far and wide under the banner of KFI, said a couple of priests called him to express their desire to donate their kidneys after the bishop’s gesture became public.
As many as 15 nuns and priests have donated kidneys apart from 70 others under his guidance. The next one to tread the path shown by Father Chiramel is Sister Chaithanya, a member of Congregation of Mother of Carmel, who will donate her kidney to Saji Varghese on June 20.
Among all the kidney donors inspired by Father Chiramel’s pioneering act is a leading Catholic industrialist of Kerala, Kochaouseph Chittilapilly who donated his kidney and has himself launched a fund to support such struggling families.
Father Chiramel had even taken out a 600-km ‘mercy march’ across Kerala to promote awareness about organ donation and collect nearly a million consent letters so that the organs of the deceased people can be made available for transplants.
Amid a thriving black market where kidney merchants fleece distraught families, the Kidney Federation is a beacon of hope for the hapless poor arranging free kidneys from donors and arranging even support for expensive transplant surgery.
“Willingness to donate is not enough. The kidneys should match. Hence we have developed the cross-donation campaign,” Father Chiramel elaborated.
The federation insists the recipient’s family join the cross-donation and one of its members donate a kidney to a needy person proposed by the federation.
The federation also extends financial assistance to dozens for dialysis while they eagerly await potential free donors arranged by the federation.
Father Chiramel recounted his own experience that reflected the deep-rooted fears about kidney donation when he decided to donate his kidney in 2009. When the news became public, his businessman friend rang him up and tried to dissuade him saying his act would dangerous.
“But when I persisted with my decision, he changed his mind and came forward to donate (500,000 rupees) to meet the expenses for the transplant. This incident inspired me to form a network to tap such generous support to help families handicapped by kidney failure,” added the priest, who has received dozens awards for his pioneering work.