TOI : Dead man's gift helps two live : Oct 5th 2007 | Kidney

MUMBAI: Fifty-year-old Sanjeev Nag came to Mumbai 10 days ago from a middle-class address in Kolkata, but he left behind two priceless gifts for two distressed Mumbai families.

Nag tragically couldn’t survive the complications of a brain operation he underwent at H N Hospital, Girgaum, on September 25 to remove a fast developing clot, but his son and daughter ensured that he "lives on" by gifting his kidneys to two patients on October 1.

"We are simply satisfied with knowing that my father has helped a noble cause," said his daughter 25-year-old Sanchita from the family home in the Dunlop area of north Kolkata. "My mother is overwhelmed after she realised that a part of him will continue to exist and spread happiness," said son Sanjoy, a small-time businessman who brought his father to Mumbai on September 24 on the advice of doctors in Kolkata’s Apollo Hospital. His father had left his job with the Calcutta State Transport Corporation in 2002 since his first stroke.

In two hospitals in Mumbai, two patients—one in his early twenties and the other in his fifties—are in intensive care after getting a transplant that may just save their lives (India’s laws governing transplants from cadaver or brain-dead patients prevent names of recipients and hospitals being mentioned).

Zonal transplant coordination committee (ZTCC) chief Dr Vatsala Trivedi told TOI that this was Mumbai fourth cadaver donation this year. "Mumbai’s drought as far as cadaver donations go ended after a gap of six months; we have got a donation that has helped two kidney patients," she said. So far, only eight patients have benefited from cadaver transplants this year while their numbers run into lakh.

"The young patient is doing well so far and we are keeping our fingers crossed," said his doctor, adding that it was his second transplant after the first kidney donated by a family member failed.

In another south Mumbai hospital, the older patient is waiting for the transplanted kidney to "open" or start functioning. "He is fine, but given his history of polycystic kidney disease (a rare hereditary form), we are keeping a close watch," said his treating surgeon. None of the family members could donate their kidneys to him because of the genetic nature of the disease. "His wife couldn’t because she had a different blood group," the doctor added.
Both patients had been on dialysis (or an artificial kidney machine) for a number of years and their condition was precarious when the Nags—it took them two for the news that their father was brain dead to sink in—gave the green signal.

"The doctors at H N Hospital told us that there was no chance of my father ever regaining consciousness, but we needed the entire family’s counsel on organ donation as we had never ever given it a thought," said Sanjoy.

Transplants are the only hope for patients with kidney disease, which roughly affects three lakh new patients every year. Given the pathetic state of the cadaver donation programme—too few to make a difference—their plight worsens.
According to Dr Atul Adaniya of H N Hospital, "The ZTCC list had names of over 900 patients, with some waiting since 2002. As we kept calling up candidates who we thought were ideal, we kept getting replies like, ‘she died four months back’ or ‘he died last year’." Kidney failure patients can usually carry on with dialysis for four-odd years.

It is this pathetic condition that we want to change, said Dr P M Bhujang who is a member of ZTCC and the medical director of H N Hospital. "Cadaver donation has to be promoted as the most effective way of saving lives of ailing patients," he added.

Publication : TOI; Page : Front page; Date : Oct 5, 2007

URL - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Dead_mans_gift_helps_two_live/articleshow/2430321.cms