Late 1998: Sugunan looks at Sugethra who has been declared brain dead after an accident at St John's Hospital in Bangalore. He then signs the medico-legal papers donating the eyes and kidneys of his daughter for transplants.

Even in the face of a tragedy, the social heroism of the ex-MICO employee's family surfaced, helping two people to see and two others to get off dialysis. Sugunan's family will be one of the four from Karnataka who will be felicitated by FORTE (Foundation for Organ Retrieval and Transplant Education) Trust at a function in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Speaking to The Indian Express on Tuesday, Sugunan brushed aside comments that his decision was ``heroic'' and claimed that his family would be happier if more people donated their organs. ``I am happy that my girl has made the lives of four others easier, but there are a many more such people around,'' he said.

Sugethra died after she fell off a bike on December 7 last year. The 21-year-old graduate had been taking a computer diploma course and working part-time in a garment factory at Koramangala as an accounts assistant.``Since her work would get over only by 6 pm, my son Vijayraj would pick her up on his bike and bring her home,'' recalled Sugunan. That fateful evening, Vijay was taking a turn when Sugethra, riding pillion, lost her balance and fell off the bike, injuring her head.

Vijay immediately took his unconscious sister to St John's Hospital. ``There was no external bleeding. So the doctors sent her for scanning,'' said Vijay. By the time his father reached the hospital, the doctors had diagnosed that Sugethra had serious injuries inside her head. ``They kept her on a ventilator for a day,'' said Sugunan. When the effort failed, they approached the family with the option of donating her organs. ``They told me that there was a patient in Manipal Hospital who needed an eye and I agreed,'' said Sugunan.

For him, it was a way of fulfilling his decision to help science make use of his daughter's body for the welfare of humankind. When Sugethra was affected by meningitis in 1979, doctors at CMC Vellore, where she was being treated, gave her a slim chance of survival. ``I had decided to donate my daughter's body to the CMC hospital for research if she died at Vellore,'' he said. But Sugethra, who was born a premature baby, survived. ``Thus, when the doctors asked for her organs I was, in a way, prepared for it,'' said Sugunan.

Though the family agreed on removing the eyes and the kidneys of their daughter, there was one organ that they refused to donate -- the heart. ``We did not do it, because the heart is ours,'' said Sugunan.