Infant’s kidneys a gift of life to teenaged boy at PGIMER

Retrieving organs from children for transplant is rare, it is even more uncommon from such young babies with congenital anomalies, said doctors

Before she passed, a month old infant gave the gift of life – her kidneys – to a teenage boy battling end stage kidney disease at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) following a delicate and complicated medical procedure.

Experts at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh (pictured here) recently performed a complex medical procedure to harvest the kidneys of a one month old infant. (HT Photo)

Born on October 28, the infant had brain anomalies that made survival difficult. She was brought to PGIMER on November 25, where she suffered a cardiac arrest on Saturday. “The brave heart parents of a little angel Ababat Kaur Sandhu, who lived for only 39 days, immortalised her with their magnanimous decision of organ donation that kindled ‘hope for life’ for one renal failure terminally ill patient here at PGIMER today,” read a release issued by the institute.

As the baby’s parents, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Supreet Kaur from Amritsar did not want their daughter’s death to go in vain, doctors quickly performed the rare and intricate operation to remove the infant’s kidneys after she suffered the cardiac arrest and use them to save another life, the release added.

Giving details, Prof Ashish Sharma, head, department of renal transplant surgery, PGIMER, shared, “Retrieving organs from children for transplant is rare, it is even more uncommon from such young babies with congenital anomalies.”

On the challenges, Dr Sharma said, “the donor was not even 40 days old so retrieval was also not a routine procedure and demanded extreme deftness and skill to accomplish it successfully. Then, the best matched recipient was an adult so both the kidneys were transplanted onto one recipient considering the age factor.”

The infant’s father, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu , an agriculture development officer in Punjab, said, “It’s something no family should have to go through. We said ‘yes’ to organ donation because somewhere in our hearts we felt that our daughter’s short mortal journey had a ‘purpose’. She came to this world, only to give life to someone else in so much pain.”

“We have done it so that our daughter relives through others. We hope our child’s story will inspire families who find themselves in the same position,” said Supreet Kaur, a science teacher.