Govt orders probe into ‘lapses’ in 5-yr-old’s kidney transplant

Bhubaneswar: The state government on Thursday ordered an inquiry into the lapses, if any, in retrieving the kidneys of a five-year-old deceased donor the day before.
The kidneys were first taken from a hospital in Bhubaneswar to Cuttack and from there to another hospital in the state capital where the organs were finally transplanted into two patients, raising apprehensions about the time lapse and lack of coordination.
“I have asked the DMET (director of medical education and training) to inquire into it and submit a report,” health secretary Nikunja Bihari Dhal told TOI.
While green corridors are usually created to facilitate quicker transport of organs recovered from brain dead people to transplant centres, the manner in which the kidneys were shifted from one hospital to another was questioned by a section of those involved in transplant care.
Sources said the five-year-old boy was hospitalised in a private medical college in Bhubaneswar on July 4 and remained on ventilator support for more than a week after which he was declared brain dead.
After his parents’ consent, the kidneys were recovered around 3am on Wednesday and shifted to Cuttack for transplant there. However, a few hours later his organs were sent to a private hospital in Bhubaneswar.
Samir Swain, associate professor of urology and the transplant surgeon who retrieved the kidneys and was supposed to do the transplant at SCB, said, “During cross matching, the kidney was not found to be compatible with the prospective recipients. That is why it was sent to another hospital in Bhubaneswar for being transplanted into two other patients.
The State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO) maintains a common list of prospective recipients and takes a call on the patients who would get the organ depending on compatibility.
SOTTO nodal officer Uma K Satapathy said both the kidneys were transplanted into two persons as per procedure and both are doing well now.
Vastala Trivedi, a Mumbai-based urologist, said there is need to improve many practical difficulties for seamless transplant from deceased donors.
Mukut Minz, a Odisha native and a Chandigarh-based transplant surgeon, said kidneys can be kept up to 24 hours, if properly stored, which depends on many factors.