Organ Transplantation: PGI team goes to Tanda medical college, retrieves organs

Chandigarh: A 39-year-old Karnal man got a new lease of life thanks to the generosity of the family of an accident victim, which chose to donate his kidneys, and probably, extending in some way its own kin's existence.

The transplant was done at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) whose team first went to Rajendra Prasad Govt Medical College (RPGMC) Tanda and retrieved the kidneys of the deceased from the government hospital in Himachal Pradesh.

This was the first ever transplant assisted by any Himachal Pradesh government facility, hospital officials here claimed. "It was a perfect example of hand holding and capacity building by PGIMER when the team from PGIMER went to Dr Rajendra Prasad Govt Medical College (RPGMC) Tanda , retrieved the kidneys of an 18-year-old accident victim and transplanted it to a terminally ill renal failure matching recipient and gave him a 'gift of life' here at PGIMER," PGIMER said in a statement on Sunday.

Surjit Singh, Director PGIMER, praised the RPGMC hospital for its coordination and enterprise.

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"We highly commend RPGMC, Tanda for taking this huge initiative," he said.

Vipin Koushal, Medical Superintendent, PGIMER, said the delivery of the organs could not have been possible without cooperation of several agencies including police.

"It was a race against time. A green corridor was created from PGIMER Chandigarh to RPGMC, Tanda, with the excellent collaboration of Police Administration from Chandigarh, Mohali, Rupnagar, Una, and Kangra so that the donated organs could be transported here in PGIMER in the shortest possible time," he said.

The kidneys came from a Kangra resident who was seriously injured in a road accident on March 10.

He was taken to RPGMC, Tanda, in a critical condition, but his condition kept deteriorating due to a serious head injury and despite best efforts of the medical team, he succumbed, the statement said.

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Despite their private tragedy, the family displayed exemplary courage and consented for organ donation.

It took PGIMER team two hours on Saturday to retrieve the organs from Tanda facility. They harvested two kidneys and two corneas from the donor's body. The team returned to PGIMER at 9:14 pm the same evening through the 'green corridor', and once there, proceeded with the transplantation process through the night.

The corneas will be transplanted to corneal blind patients at Tanda hospital, said the statement.

"It is very gratifying that we could translate the noble wish of the family into reality," Ashish Sharma, Head, Department of Renal Transplant Surgery, PGIMER.

The other kidney, being shrunken in size, was not found to be transplantable, he said, PTI reports.

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