Maharashtra declines inter-state kidney transplant request-believe donor and patient not related
Maharashtra : Soon after the rejection of request for an inter-state kidney transplant the Maharashtra state organ transplant committee has decided to write to its Gujarat corresponding team to investigate the documents that was provided while issuing a no-objection certificate verifying the relationship between a prospective donor and patient. This medical case is related to a Gujarat-based donor and a Nerul-based patient employed with a telecom company.
It was on March 9, that the kindey transplant case was rejected by the Maharashtra committee after officials suspected that the prospective donor and recipient were not related to each other. The kidney recipient was detected with end-stage kidney disease in September 2017.
The state organ committee observed that the description of the donor, recipient and the donor’s wife did not match. Also, the committee in its report said the recipient’s sister and two sons were not present in the meeting that was arranged for questioning and authenticating. Sources said that the potential recipient, in his documents, claimed that the donor is his sister’s son. But the case was a bit different. An official said “There are no photos to establish the relationship between the donor and the recipient as nephew and uncle. The recipient did not even attend the donor’s wedding. When we asked why his sister did not come, he said she can’t walk properly,” This led the committee to reject the application on grounds of difference in the story described by the prospective donor and recipient.
It has been known that the prospective donor works as a security guard in Gujarat while the patient is a senior executive with a telecom agency, posted in Navi Mumbai. “We are also going to approach the local tehsildar in Gujarat who attested to the residency of the donor and his occupation,” a state government official said.
Shocking news came out when on March 12, state organ transplant committee received an anonymous e-mail stating that the patient had paid Rs 15 lakh to the prospective donor, in addition to offering a job to the latter’s son. According to Dr Gauri Rathod, the state transplant coordinator, four cases of unrelated organ transplants have been rejected by the committee since 2017 in Maharashtra. The organ donation procedure has become strongly controlled since an alleged racket was discovered at the Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital in Powai in July 2016. Soon, the licence for the hospital was suspended.
As per the official documents with the Directorate of Health Services, Jaslok hospital referred the latest case to the State Organ Transplant Committee for approval as the prospective donor and recipient were seen unrelated. It is important to know that organ transplants are permitted by a hospital authorisation committee if the donor and recipient are closely related, such as in cases of father and son or siblings. Also, if there are extended family members or unrelated people who want to undergo an organ transplant, an additional permission from the state government is compulsory.
