An alarming trend in occurrence of end-stage kidney disease (ESTD) is causing a public health concern. Patients who have been diagnosed with ESTD are advised renal transplant after exhausting all forms of treatment, including dialysis.
The authorisation committee of the Government General Hospital here, mandated to give permission for a renal transplant across nine districts of coastal and Rayalaseema regions, gets an average of 9-12 applications per month.
“The immunological kidney disease has emerged as a major risk factor affecting all age groups,” said P. Prakash Rao, urologist at GGH.
The committee, headed by medical superintendent, GGH, and comprising urologist, nephorologist and transplant surgeon, has received close to 200 applications for kidney transplant over the two years, indicating the alarming rise in kidney failure cases. In the cases, where donors are not related to the recipient, the applicant had to submit a series of documents proving his identity, residential address and further has to give self-declared affidavits. The committee then screens the application, counsels both recipient and donor, even video record their statements before giving the nod.
Violation of norms
In the latest suspected kidney racket case that unfolded at Narasaraopet, where Mudavat Venkateswarlu Naik, a prospective donor, faked his identity as a relative of the patient, Ch. Sivanageswara Rao at Vedanta hospital, Guntur, but the application has been rejected during the police verification. The family of the patient, however, got the surgery done at Ayush Hospitals, Vijayawada, violating the guidelines laid out in the renal transplant rules of Andhra Pradesh government.
“In case the patient desires to change the hospital or his doctor, he has to apply to the committee from the hospital in which he wishes to undergo transplantation through the hospital from which he has earlier applied with specific reasons,’’ said Dr. Prakash Rao.
