Dushyant Mehta, a 21-year-old who donated bone marrow at age two to save his sister’s life, has died of complications related to the same genetic disorder that took her life. The inquest at St Pancras Coroner’s Court heard that Dushyant died on March 12 at University College London Hospital from the effects of dyskeratosis congenita, a very rare genetic disorder that causes bone marrow failure.
A family’s second loss to a cruel condition
Dushyant’s sister Devaanshi died in 2012 at the age of 15, five years after her own bone marrow transplant. The assistant coroner Jonathan Stevens told the family: “It’s an utterly heartbreaking case, and my heart goes out to this family who have already lost a beloved daughter to complications of this cruel condition, and now they are having to come to terms with the loss of a deeply loved son and a young man who clearly was a man who never gave up hope, and dealt with his illness quite clearly with tremendous grace and dignity in a manner that exceeded his years in terms of the way he was able to deal with it.”
Dushyant had a bone marrow transplant in September 2025, followed by a complication the next month. He developed graft-versus-host disease, in which cells from the donated marrow attack the recipient’s own cells. Treatment required suppressing his immune system, a balance that had to be struck with preventing infections.
Medical complications and final efforts
Despite efforts to save him, including surgery on his failing intestines, Dushyant developed further complications and died. The coroner said: “He was treated with a bone marrow transplant following the failure of his own bone marrow, which was clearly a necessary treatment. He then developed the graft-versus-host disease, which in turn ultimately caused the sepsis, the inflammation in the intestine and the haemorrhage which together resulted in multi-organ failure, which resulted in his death.”
Mr Stevens described the condition as “extremely difficult to treat” and concluded Dushyant died of natural causes. He added: “Dushyant was just 21 years old, clearly a young man of great grace and dignity and bravery, lovingly supported by his family. It is impossible to imagine the pain that the family has suffered with two children who have been lost to this cruel condition.”
Family remembers a stoic young man
Dushyant’s mother Kalyani tearfully described her son: “He was amazing. He was a lovely individual, he really really was. He loved us as much as we loved him, and everything that he went through, from donating his bone marrow to Devaanshi when he was two or three until the day he left, was very stoic. He managed everything in such an, if I can say, adult fashion because he was only young.”
Kalyani said he “never thought he would die” and that the family shared that belief: “And also, as a family, we never thought that either because we thought, well, we have been through this process with Devaanshi. She survived five years post transplant.” She noted Dushyant had “tons of friends” and everyone “loved him”.
Speaking of his aspirations, she said: “He wanted to become an architect. He wanted to go to university. He wanted to travel the world. He had his 21st birthday during transplant, and we asked ‘What would you like’ and he said that ‘One year from now, Mum, I want to go to Tokyo first class’. So as a family, we said ‘Ok, that’s what you want, that’s what we will do’. All I can tell you is he had so many ideas of what he wanted to do.”
