In the neighbourhood of the House of Horrors in Gurgaon where Amit Rout performed illegal kidney transplants stands another house. As Rout’s dark secrets tumble out, residents of this house pull out what looks like a giant family album.

The first page has a photograph of a smiling Aman Jain and under it the words: ‘My Angel’. On the second page is a photograph of Aman as a newborn, cradled in his grandmother’s lap. Each page records a chapter in the life of the 14-year-old—his birthday parties, the prize he won in a contest, outings with his cousins and a short stay in a boarding school. It ends with a photograph of his taken in April 2005 in the ICU, where he lay comatose after an asthma attack, his face covered with tubes, his walkman by his pillow.

As he lay in hospital, his mother Mamta decided he would be an ‘Angel’. When for two days, he showed no sign of reviving, she walked up to the doctors and said she wanted to donate her son’s organs. The unusual request threw the hospital staff at New Delhi’s Gangaram Hospital in a tizzy. They had some sort of a list of patients waiting for organs but it took them two more days to get the recipients together. Ten teams of surgeons worked all night. In all, 11 people got life from the organs donated by Aman.

It was an act of courage seldom shown by families in India. An act of individual courage that holds a glimmer of hope for a campaign to take the message of organ donation to the country.

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