Two families skip queue, swap kidneys to save lives

A kidney swap has saved two lives from two families, one from Uran in Navi Mumbai and another from Sion in Mumbai. The transplant surgeries were successfully performed at Apollo Hospital in Navi Mumbai.

Sunandha Sitha, 49, a resident of Uran, wanted to donate a kidney to her son, Rahul, 28. Similarly, Gurudev Saini, 64, a resident of Sion wanted to donate a kidney to his wife, Parvinder, 61. However, neither Sunandha nor Gurudev were compatible matches for their respective family members.

The patients, Rahul and Parvinder, were on dialysis at Apollo Hospital in Belapur for around two years. For those suffering from end-stage kidney diseases, a kidney transplant is the only treatment. If the patient does not find a donor, he or she has to remain on dialysis.

Consultant robotic urology and renal transplant surgeon at the hospital, Dr Amol Kumar Patil said, “We checked their swap compatibility and informed them about the possibility.” While Rahul’s mother donated a kidney to Parvinder, Gurudev donated his to Rahul.

Dr Patil said that a swap transplant attempts to minimise the shortfall of donors. It is an exchange of organs between two families who cannot donate to their own family member due to incompatibility concerns such as blood group mismatch or HLA (human leukocytes antigen) mismatch.

Gurudev said his wife is doing well after the surgery. “we had been waiting for almost 18 months. Although I was willing to give my kidney, I could not because of incompatibility,” he said.

Rahul, who had lost hope after almost two years of wait, said, “We are glad that the hospital assisted in legal formalities, too.”