Ahmedabad: This woman lost 20kg in seven months for sister

AHMEDABAD: Renu Singh, 44, a resident of Mumbai, is living in an one-room lodging right outside Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, for the past one year. Singh, who weighed 96 kg in October last year, has shed 20-odd kilograms in a matter of seven months. No, she’s not on a self-improvement spree, she’s shed her flab to give her younger sister a second lease of life!
Renu’s sister Rani, 32, is a kidney disease patient and on dialysis for close to three years. Rani is awaiting kidney transplant. She and her husband Pankaj, residents of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, are hopeful that their ordeal would soon end after a cross-transplant. Renu will donate her kidney to a youth from Rajasthan whereas his father will be donating a kidney to Rani at IKDRC in Civil Hospital campus.

“Rani started developing complications in June 2017. After treatment in Varanasi and Lucknow, we were advised to come to IKDRC for a quicker procedure,” Renu said.
The couple came to Ahmedabad one and a half years ago, with Rani’s mother as a donor in tow. She was deemed unfit to donate due to age and medical condition. It was then that Renu came to Rani’s rescue.
Renu says she has always treated Rani like a daughter and would go to any lengths to help her. Upon check-up, doctors found Renu’s obesity an impediment to organ donation as it could cause health complications for her.
When she was asked if she could knock off 20 kg, Renu accepted the challenge
“Right from rigorous exercises to strict diet regime, slowly but surely, I lost weight and gained hope,” said Renu whose family was extremely supportive of her decision.
“My mother-in-law’s brother was a donor himself. My son read up everything on organ donation and promised to support me lead a healthy life post donation,” she added.
But for Singhs, the transplant was not going to be this easy. The transplant committee at IKDRC carried out rigorous scrutiny of the case, including asking the sisters for their DNA test, to verify every aspect. The committee that met in February, finally gave its nod in mid-March. Meanwhile, a computerized cross-match for the donors and recipients matched Renu and Rani Singh with father-son duo of Parsa Ram and Munna Ram from Rajasthan as a better match and it was decided that Renu would donate a kidney to Munna and Rani would get a kidney from Parsa.
The lockdown however put organ donations on hold forcing the couple and Renu to stay put in Ahmedabad. “Rani’s blood pressure shoots up to 200 sometimes and she requires dialysis two to three times a week,” said Pankaj.
“We have got support from IKDRC and support from CM and PM funds for treatment. But living in Ahmedabad for one and a half years dried up our finances. We hope and pray the procedure takes place soon,” he added.