AIIMS to set up organ retrieval bank in Bathinda
Live transplants are done when patients get a kidney or other organ from a blood-related donor, whereas under cadaveric transplants, organs are harvested from the deceased with consent of the deceased’s families.
A week after performing the first live renal transplant in any government hospital in Punjab, the management of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bathinda, is now working to set up an organ retrieval bank, to boost cadaveric transplants.
Live transplants are done when patients get a kidney or other organ from a blood-related donor, whereas under cadaveric transplants, organs are harvested from the deceased with consent of the deceased’s families.
Executive director of the central institute Meenu Singh told reporters on Wednesday that as AIIMS has achieved a benchmark in organ transplant, experts will help in establishing the bank to boost harvest of multiple organs to save precious lives.
Singh said that liver transplant and cadaver kidney transplant are the next key target.
She said on March 6, a 24-year-old male patient from Mansa district was operated upon for kidney transplant.
“His mother was a donor, and both are responding well in the post-surgery phase. The donor woman was discharged whereas the kidney recipient is doing well at the AIIMS,” she said.
Singh said Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, was a mentor institute in the maiden kidney transplant and it played a significant role in achieving the feat.
AIIMS president AK Gupta said that the inception of kidney transplant services would prove a boon for patients, where high-end healthcare expertise would now be available at affordable rates.
Nephrologist Dr Saurabh Nayak said that the facility would reduce patient load at the Chandigarh-based PGIMER, a pioneer in kidney transplant in the country, and the patients can avail healthcare facility in renal transplant in Bathinda.
Associate professor in the urology department, Dr Kawaljit Singh Kaura is a seasoned transplant surgeon and nodal officer of the transplant project, said that nearly 40 more patients are awaiting kidney transplant at the AIIMS.
About 100 patients are availing dialysis every day, he added.
Kaura said the organ retrieval bank is aimed at harvesting organs like kidneys, cornea and heart from the deceased after a consent as per strict rules from the aggrieved families and help the registered patients in need of organ transplants.
“Once a facility is set up, organs are sent to needy patients through a national registry for which a green corridor is built for speedy transport of the organs. Our team is prepared to set up the organ retrieval bank after fulfilling the rules,” he added.