MMM’s success story in a bubble

CHENNAI: Amid the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, the transplant unit of the Madras Medical Mission did a highly sensitised living donor kidney transplant. Dr Rajeevalochana, consultant, said that they created a transplant ‘bubble’ wherein the entire team taking care of the donor and the recipient were tested a day before and the daily nursing staff were isolated to decrease the exposure.

Being a highly sensitised recipient, extra immunosuppressant was needed and pre-transplant plasmapheresis was done. The donor and recipient were tested twice, a week apart, with both nasopharyngeal RTPCR and a screening HRCT. Once in the bubble, no one else was allowed, The recipient is in home isolation and regular consults are being done. The hospital administration designed, planned and, under constant supervision, executed the transplant bubble. All the governing board members of MMM supported this move.