Surat: Stem cell donation by a 43-year-old diamond polisher from Surat helped save the life of a paediatric patient from New Delhi suffering from blood disorder acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) recently.
Janak Dhaduk, a native of Senjal village in Savarkundla taluka of Amreli district, now settled in Surat, did not think twice before giving his consent when DATRI, India’s largest blood stem donor registry informed him that his samples matched with the minor patient who was in urgent need of stem cell transplant.
A few days back, Dhaduk’s donated stem cells which were transplanted into the child from New Delhi. DATRI did not have more details of the recipient, except that the receiver suffered from AML and was a minor.
“I had registered as a potential stem cell donor about two years ago. After I received the call from DATRI, I informed my wife and decided to donate to save someone’s life,” Dhaduk told TOI.
Head Donor Recruitment and Counselling at DATRI (Gujarat) Jalpa Sukhanandi said, “People like Janakbhai (Dhaduk) help save lives of patients in need of urgent stem cell transplant. We appreciate his courage in donating his stem cells.”
Surat has been leading in stem cell donations in the state. Since 2014, 89 people have donated stem cells in Gujarat out of which 61 are from Surat alone.
According to Sukhanandi, since the lockdown was imposed, four stem cell donations have taken place in the state, all from Surat city.
“The probability of finding a matching donor is one in 10,000 to one in over a million as the total number of registered donors is very low. There are only a little over 4.5 lakh registered stem cell donors with DATRI. This is less than 0.33% of the total population of India,” added Sukhanandi.