20-year-old Anmol Juneja built his legacy in a way that many wouldn’t imagine for themselves. However, behind that were his father’s decisions that ended up not only changing but saving the lives of as many as 34 people in India.

On a fateful day of December 2012, Anmol was on his way home in East Delhi. After speaking with his father minutes before he was hit by truck near the Madhu Vihar flyover, he was admitted to the nearest hospital, instead. However, having suffered a serious injury to his head, Anmol was declared brain dead after two days.

Madan Mohan Juneja, Anmol’s father, took the hardest decision at a time when most parents break down. He decided to keep his son alive in the form of those who needed a second innings in their lives.

He decided to donate his son’s vital organs.

“The senior doctor told me that all his organs were functioning except his brain” said Madan Mohan. “The doctors asked what I wanted to do with Anmol, how long I wanted him to be on ventilator.” Since, there was no real grasp of the kind of injury Anmol’s brain had suffered, the blood clot could possible lead him to be paralysed for the rest of life.

Be it a coincidence or a miracle but Anmol’s father had watched a documentary on organ donation only a week ago. Having understood the value of organ donation and its justification in his religion, Madan Mohan knew how he wanted his son to be remembered.

“As soon as the doctor said the word ‘organs’, I remembered the documentary we watched at Guru Ji’s satsang (religious meeting) only a week ago and it just felt like the right thing to do” said Anmol’s father. “I didn’t want Anmol to pass away in pain which he would have if we kept him on ventilator or had he became paralysed and bed-ridden.”

At AIIMS, Madan Mohan was asked for Anmol’s bone, skin and eyes besides kidneys and liver. His only request in return was to give Anmol enough respect. “I asked the doctors to give me Anmol’s body in a way that could be cremated without grimace and to wash him with Ganga Jal (holy water)” said Anmol’s father. “The doctors told us that we didn’t need to worry about that and that Anmol would be bathed and brought to them in a hospital ambulance by 10.30 am.”

It was later found that Anmol’s eyes were donated to four people as a result of India’s first such technic where an eye could be transplanted in two people while his kidneys and the entire liver were used to save different people as well.

In fact, in the medical history of AIIMS, Anmol’s was the first case where the entire liver was transplanted in another person. “In India, this was the first case of 100% liver transplant. Nobody donates an entire liver, only an accident victim can” said Anmol’s father.

Despite hospitals having a counselling team to convince the families of accident victims to donate their loved one’s organs, most refuse if not lash out on the staff. Even when those parents would agree, their relatives would talk them out of the decision.

Anmol’s organs eventually saved the lives of 34 people in India. Today, his father is in touch with one of the families where a woman received Anmol’s kidney. She is a sub-inspector in Delhi Police and her father maintains a good relation with Anmol’s parents.

Their meeting with Anmol’s father wasn’t by chance, either. Though, the doctors refused to share the donor’s family details and their address, they did inform them the family belong to Delhi’s Geeta Colony.

The sub-inspector’s brother and his son, too, resided in the same colony. With 118 houses in the colony, it wasn’t very difficult for them to spot the only house where a death had happened in the recent past.

“We prefer speaking on the phone, though I have met her (the lady who received Anmol’s liver) once. It is very emotional for me” said Anmol’s father. “When NDTV showed the special program in January, I received a call from the person who got Anmol’s liver, too.”

Today, Anmol and his father stand as an inspiration to everyone who have either lost a loved one to an accident or want to become organ donors in the future. With Madan Mohan’s wish to have his son remembered in a good way after his death, he has well achieved that with the decision he took.

“Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal to remember Mumtaj, but I think there is nothing better than donating organs. It beats everything else. The shine in the eyes of those who received Anmol’s eyes is far brighter than the Taj Mahal” said Anmol’s father.

True to his name, Anmol, which means ‘priceless’, became so in his death and gave 34 people a new beginning.