Doctors at the Institute of Child Health recently performed a renal transplant on an 11-year-old boy. The recipient and the donor, his paternal grandmother, are doing well.
The boy, R. Akshyaraj, had been diagnosed with a chronic ailment in 2013 and was referred from Karaikal to Thanjavur medical college hospital.
His father G.T. Raja, who was making a living as a singer in Chennai, brought his family to the city to treat him at ICH. “Initially, he was under medication but during the pandemic I could not take him to the hospital and his condition deteriorated. He was on dialysis thrice a week,” said Mr. Raja.
His mother offered to donate a kidney and it was a perfect match. Nephrologists V. Balaraman, N. Malathi and urologist T. Antan Uresh Kumar, who had just been posted at the ICH from the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, took up the case.
The specialists used the facilities in the paediatric surgery unit for the transplant. Dr. Antan said, “The good thing is that the grandmother’s kidney was a perfect match and the creatin level was good. The child recovered and is doing well.”
The success of the surgery has prompted the specialists to propose the setting up a dedicated nephrology unit at the ICH.
Dr. Antan said for want of facilities at the ICH, children requiring kidney transplant, laparoscopic procedures for kidney, ureter, bladder and procedures for kidney stones, were referred to private hospitals. The financial burden was high on poor patients and children died for want of treatment, he added.
Twelve years ago the hospital’s dedicated paediatric urology unit was merged with paediatric surgery department. As a result, children diagnosed for various urological ailments at the hospital were referred to private hospitals, doctors said.
At the dedicated unit the caseload of transplant could be as much as one in 7 to 10 days, they added.
Since all the procedures were already enlisted in the CMCHIS empanelled hospitals, the department would have sufficient funds not only to function but also pay salaries of technicians for operation theatre, anaesthetist and staff nurse, they said.