Kidney connects Hindu and Muslim

Wed, Feb 13 01:00 AM

A case of a kidney transplant brought a Hindu and a Muslim family together in Orissa at a time when the arrest of kidney racket kingpin Amit Kumar has brought out horror stories on organ trade. Both Harekrushna Bhanja from Balasore district and Mohammad Sayeed from Cuttack needed kidney transplants after being diagnosed with renal failure.

While Harekrushna's blood group was A Positive, wife Kalpana was B Positive, making it impossible for her to donate her kidney. There was no other donor available at that time, too.

But help came in August 2007, six months after Harekrushna was diagnosed with renal failure at the Manjulaben Kidney Hospital here, where Sayeed also came for treatment for his renal failure. His wife, like Kalpana, also wanted to donate a kidney for Sayeed, but again the blood groups did not match.

Sayeed was B Positive and his wife A Positive. The couples were caught in the same crisis, in the same hospital, and Dr Deepak Shankar Ray, the nephrologist, came to their rescue.

He arranged a meeting between the families and asked them to exchange the kidneys as Kalpana's blood group matched Sayeed's and Harekrushna's blood group matched Sayeed's wife's blood group. The operation was done successfully on January 23.

Kalpana told Hindustan Times: "Dr Ray introduced us to the Sayeed family and the kidney exchange was done with mutual consent. My husband will be discharged from the hospital later today.

" "The operation carried out on January 23 in Kolkata was completely successful. It was an exchange donor kidney transplant.

Under this, no monetary transaction takes place," Ray said. "The demand for kidney transplants is more than the organs available through voluntary donations.

Certain people indulge in unethical practices taking advantage of this organ shortage," Ray said on the kidney racket run by Amit Kumar. He suggested that if the government steps in, it could buy organs and sell them to needy patients.

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