A 23-year-old hailing from Bantwal received a new lease of life with a successful kidney transplant amid the pandemic, at Yenepoya Medical College Hospital, in Deralakatte.
A young lecturer, who was the sole breadwinner of a family, was devastated when she was diagnosed with cardiac, renal failure and blood disorder. There was a backward flow of blood in her heart which made any major surgery difficult to perform on her, said Dr Altaf Khan, a urologist at Yenepoya Medical College Hospital.
She was on dialysis which was making it difficult for her to attend work. Though she had visited various renal transplant centres, all rejected her case owing to the prevalent cardiac and blood disorder, he said.
When she visited Yenepoya Medical College, she was evaluated by a team of doctors including nephrologists, urologists, cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons and anesthesiologists. She was transplanted with a kidney donated by her mother. After a successful transplant, she is relieved of her kidney, cardiac and haematological problems and now back to work, explained Dr Khan.
Nephrologist Dr Santhosh Pai said in this particular case dialysis was also difficult on the patient as her blood was getting clots. A renal transplant was the only option available to her.
“Transplant during the pandemic was a challenge as we had to isolate the patient completely to avoid any contraction with Covid-19 infection,” he said.
He further said that cadaveric renal transplant has come down drastically during the pandemic.
People can register for cadaveric transplants at Yenepoya Hospital. About 50 patients have registered so far. For registration, they have to get a dialysis record and other documents as prescribed by the government, he added.
Due to the availability of advanced medical equipment, more than a dozen successful renal transplant surgeries were performed during the past year, said Urologist Dr Mujeeburahiman.
“Prior to the renal transplant of the young woman, we had consulted cardiac and cardiothoracic surgeons from various parts of the country to elicit their opinion before going ahead with the procedure,” he said.