Murali Manoharan, the donor, a soldier in the Indian Army, was declared brain dead at the Army (Research and Referral) Hospital after a road traffic accident, according to vice admiral Rajat Datta, director general, Armed Forces Medical Services. “Manoharan’s wife, Kaushalya, consented to the donation. His organs have given a new lease of life to three terminally ill patients and the gift of sight to two patients suffering from corneal blindness. In life, this young braveheart pledged to serve the country. After life, he gave the greatest gift to humanity: his organs. I salute him and his family,” said Datta.
While the lungs were used for the transplant at AIIMS, the heart and liver went, respectively, to Mumbai’s Jaslok Hospital and Delhi’s Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences.
Group captain Sumesh Kaistha of the Army hospital said that this was the first time they retrieved the lungs from a brain-dead donor. “The recipient was suffering from cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that damages the lungs, due to which she couldn’t breathe properly. She was on non-invasive ventilator support for almost two years,” said Kaistha.
Dr Randeep Guleria, AIIMS director, informed, “The recipient is under observation.” He said the next few days were crucial. He lauded the doctors who performed the transplant surgery for their remarkable achievement.
The demand for lung transplant — the only definitive treatment for a person suffering from end-stage lung disease — has increased, but few transplants are carried out because of unavailability of suitable cadaveric donors and the high cost of post-operative care. Lung transplant, like a heart transplant, can only be carried out with an organ donated by a deceased donor. Till date, around 4,000 such transplants have been done globally, around 200 of them in India.
Except for one, all lung transplants in India have been done in private hospitals where the procedure can cost Rs 20-30 lakh or more. Follow-up medications, which must be taken lifelong, cost several lakhs a year.
The success of public hospitals such as AIIMS and PGI Chandigarh, where surgery is conducted free of cost, offers a ray of hope to many patients suffering from end-stage lung diseases. AIIMS also plans to provide the follow-up medicines at no cost.
“Organ donation is a supreme act of kindness. Kaushalya lost her husband within a year of marriage and still consented to the donation. This will surely encourage others,” hoped lieutenant general Ashok Jindal, commandant of the Army hospital.
According to Dr A K Bisoi, who was part of the team led by Dr P Venugopal that conducted India’s first heart transplant in 1994, told TOI recently that technical feasibility wasn’t the most difficult part when it came to heart or lung transplants, but arranging cadaver donors. “Also, most patients in a country like ours cannot afford post-transplant care, which involves taking immunosuppressive medications and living in a sanitised environment,” Bisoi said.
