Kerala hospital gets womb transplant centre

dubai — Sunrise Hospital at Kakkanad, Kochi, has obtained a licence to set up a womb transplant centre, the first of its kind in Kerala and south India. With this, the hospital becomes the second centre in the country to get permission for uterine transplant.

The first such transplant in the country was performed at Pune’s Galaxy Care Hospital on May 18, 2017, when a team of doctors transplanted a womb donated by a 41-year-old mother to her 21-yearold daughter who was born without the one.

After inspecting its facilities, the directorate of medical education, Kerala, on January 5 issued a licence to Sunrise to carry out the procedure under renowned laparoscopic surgeon Dr Hafeez Rahman for five years. The hospital also secured a licence for heart transplant from Kerala government.

The world’s first womb transplant was conducted in Sweden in 2012. The unnamed Swede in her mid-30s delivered a healthy baby boy by Caesarean section two years after receiving a uterus donated by a 61-year-old woman, not related to her. Today there are only five centres in the world doing this procedure.

“There are lot of patients who are not able to get pregnant due to completely damaged uterus or absent of uterus. Uterine transplant will be useful for such patients to

this procedure will be a boon for thousands of women who are suffering from infertility due to problems of uterus Dr Hafeez Rahman, laparoscopic surgeon

bear a child and will avoid the need of surrogacy. Once the child is born after uterine transplant, the uterus is removed as there will not be any need to take immuno-suppressants for the rest of their life to avoid rejection of the donor uterus.” Dr Rahman said.

“This procedure will be a boon for thousands of women who are suffering from infertility due to problems of uterus,” the doctor said. The hospital plans to conduct a womb transplant in a month or two as there are three families who have shown interest, Dr Rahman said, adding: “Availability of uterus will not be a big issue as any woman past the pregnancy age can donate the organ”.

“There are children born without a reproductive organ and Sunrise Hospital is the only centre in Kerala doing the vaginoplasty procedure to save the uterus,” the hospital said in a statement.

It said the surgery to create an artificial organ for male-to-female conversion among transgeder is also available in the hospital.