Surat diamond polisher’s priceless gift to child battling for life in Mumbai

SURAT: Polishing stones to a sparkle for years now, this 25-year-old owner of a diamond polishing unit from Surat has turned into a rare diamond himself. Bhautik Moradiya’s donation of stem cells towards saving the life of a 14-year-old child, who is diagnosed with fatal disorder, is priceless.
“I feel humbled to be able to save one’s life,” said Moradiya, who got himself registered as a potential donor in 2016 with DATRI. He donated his blood stem cell in Ahmedabad on Tuesday for the child who is admitted to a hospital in Maharashtra.

Moradiya had given a cheek swab at the country’s biggest adult unrelated blood stem cell donors for registration as a life saver in a million, said that he was overjoyed to receive a call on Monday telling him his stem cell matched with a child’s.
“I consulted my parents who encouraged me to go ahead and donate my blood stem cell and save the child who’s fighting for his life,” said Moradiya, while talking to TOI.
The native of Ugamedi village in Botad district owns a diamond unit in Surat.
“The probability of finding a matched donor is only 1 in 10,000 to 1 in over a million,” explained Jalpa Sukhanandi, Region Head, (Gujarat), DATRI.
With such low probability, it is necessary to have a large database of willing blood stem cell donors and donors like Moradiya are life saviours, she said.
“An estimate states that by 2020, as many as 1,32,574 cases of blood cancer are expected to be reported every year. Every year thousands of lives are lost due to unavailability of potential donors. Looking at how precious this donation is, Surtis have done exceptional work to set an example,” Sukhanandi added.