BENGALURU: Two women donated their kidneys to each other’s husbands in a rare swap between two hospitals in Benglauru on Tuesday.
Santosh, who was admitted at Columbia Asia Hospital, Hebbal, received a kidney from Aparna Krishna. Aprarna’s husband Krishna, admitted at Suguna Hospital,
Rajajinagar, received the organ from Santosh’s wife Rekha Santosh.
Traffic police created two green corridors to transport the kidneys between the two hospitals between 8:15am and 8:45am.
First, Aparna’s kidney was taken from Suguna Hospital at 8.12am; it reached Columbia Asia at 8:27am. Rekha’s kidney was transported through another green corridor from Columbia Asia to Suguna between 8:38am and 8:56am. By 10am, teams of doctors at the two hospitals had successfully transplant the kidneys.
Dr Girish Namagondlu, consultant-nephrologist and transplant specialist at Columbia Asia, said: “Santosh and Rekha were looking for a kidney-swap transplant. We couldn’t find a match internally at our hospital and later checked with all possible nephrologists in the city. Finally, we found Dr Sanjay’s patient Krishna and and his wife Aparna. They too were looking for a swap donor. Fortunately, the blood groups between the recipients and the donors matched and we could go ahead with the surgery. The legal procedures though took a lot of time as it was between two different hospitals.”
Doctors said this could be the first instance of kidney swapping between hospitals within a city.
Santosh, a businessman from Karwar, was undergoing
dialysis in Mangaluru. He came to Columbia Asia last September for other alternatives, said Dr Ajit K Huilgol, director and chief transplant surgeon, Columbia Asia Hospital. “We got a donor by December, but the person had health issues because of which Santosh had to wait for almost a year. Krishna, a priest from Mandya, was at Suguna around the same time. He too was desperately looking for a swap donation,” he said.
(Names of patients and donors have been changed)
Representative Image
