Infant gives new lease of life to renal patient

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 12

An 11-month-old brain dead child of Nepalese parents has given a fresh lease of life to a 38-year-old renal failure patient at the PGI.

According to the organ transplant team of the PGI, the case makes the child the youngest donor in the PGI’s transplant history so far since the cadaver renal transplant programme was initiated in 1996.

The latest transplant has taken the tally of cadaver donations to 20 in 2018.

The parents of the donor had come all the way from Nepal for the treatment of their 11-month-old child.

They were putting up in a rented accommodation in Sector 45. On July 6, the child fell from the bed while playing. He fell unconscious due to a head injury and was rushed to the GMCH, Sector 32, from where he was referred to the PGI.

However, he could not be saved and was declared brain dead on July 9.

After completing the transplant formalities, the team started the transplant on Tuesday (July 10) afternoon. It took nine hours for the team to retrieve both kidneys and to transplant these to the renal failure patient.

Prof Ashish Sharma, Head, Department of Renal Transplant Surgery, PGI, while giving details about the latest case, said it was a challenging case. “According to organ donation norms for children under the age of one, two confirmatory tests to declare a baby brain dead must have a gap of 24 hours. So, it was a herculean task for the paediatricians and the transplant team to maintain the donor organs. Also, the retrieval process of kidneys demanded extreme deftness and skill to accomplish it successfully,” he said.

He added, “The transplant had its own difficulties as the best matched recipient was an adult so both kidneys had to be transplanted into one recipient, considering the age factor.”

He said while the recipient was stable, the next one week would be crucial for the patient. “The kidney is functional now and we are hoping that the patient would improve,” said Dr Ashish.

Mother Geeta and father Laxman  said they took the decision to donate the organs of their beloved son Pritam so that the life of a critically ill patient could be saved.

“It’s something no family should have to go through. We said yes to organ donation because we knew this could help someone else and they wouldn’t need to go through the heartache that we were going through. We knew it was the right thing to do,” said the grief-stricken but braveheart father Laxman, who works in a local hotel here.

He said they had come seven months ago for the treatment of their child. It was their first child.

According to the PGI, following the consent of the parents, the baby’s kidneys were retrieved and transplanted into an adult.

The 38-year-old woman recipient was deserted by her husband and her family members after they learnt that the patient was suffering from renal failure. Finally, an NGO came to the aid of the patient and the transplant was possible.