Stanley GH resumes kidney transplants

CHENNAI: Government Stanley Medical College Hospital resumed live renal transplant surgeries on Monday after temporarily suspending it almost a year ago owing to Covid-19 pandemic. The surgeons at the hospital performed renal transplantation on a 30-year-old man from Chennai after his mother donated her kidney for him.

Speaking to Express, Dr JVS Prakash, Head of Urology Department, Government Stanley Medical College Hospital, said, “The patient was suffering with end-stage renal failure, and was waiting for the transplant for around three years. The transplant was halted due to the pandemic. There were 19 people on the waiting list for renal transplant at the hospital, including the patient who underwent the transplant on Monday.”

The doctor also said that since things have slowly started returning to normalcy, he, along with his team of doctors, is planning to do one renal transplant procedure every week.The surgery was performed on February 24 at free of cost under Chief Minister Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.

Meanwhile, hospital Dean Dr P Balaji said, after live renal transplants, the hospital would slowly resume cadaveric organ transplant programme too once the Covid-19 cases drop further. The cadaveric transplant programme was also temporarily suspended due to the pandemic. The Dean also said that the hospital had five dedicated hemodialysis machines for Covid-19 patients and had performed dialysis on 130 Covid patients.