Mumbai: Thanks to wife, sister, man gets 2-kidney gift

Where most find themselves on the waiting list for kidneys for years, a 61-year-old city man has been blessed twice — within 14 years. For that, Kiran Pandey has his family members — wife and sister — to thank who donated their kidneys on both occasions to save his life.

Following a kidney failure in 2005, Pandey first underwent a transplant with his wife's donated kidney. However, within 14 years, the transplanted kidney's function declined and this week, he underwent another organ transplant, this time with the kidney donated by his 65-year-old sister.

The doctors performed a blood group incompatible transplant on Pandey. According to the doctors, one of the medicine that the patient was consuming led to the deterioration of his kidney.

Dr Bharat Shah, Director, Institute of Renal Sciences, Global Hospital, said, "When the patient came for consultation the first time, he had severe loose motions for many months and worsening function of his transplanted kidney. We realised that one of the medicines, Mycophenolate Mofetil, was the main culprit and changing it to Azathioprine solved the diarrhoea. However, the kidney had suffered and he needed another transplant."

The patient's two sisters, one from Dubai, came forward to donate and were examined. "Both sisters, whose blood groups were different, were evaluated, and it was decided to accept the kidney of the sister whose tissue typing matched 100%. 

Kiran's blood group is O+ and his sister Shraddha Awalegaonkar's is AB+. Even though their blood group didn't match,we had experience with incompatible blood group transplants earlier so we went ahead with the transplant after a desensitisation procedure. It is the removal of antibodies to donor's blood group which is required to be performed before doing a blood group incompatible transplant," said Dr Shah.

The patient underwent the surgery on August 14. Awalegaonkar, donor and elder sister of Pandey, said, "Nothing is more important to me than my brother. I can't imagine my life without him. I have seen him in pain, and would have done whatever it takes to save his life."

Meanwhile, Pandey, exhorting the value of organ donations, said, "I could not do my daily chores with ease and even after trying many procedures and treatments, my condition kept worsening. I urge people to come forward and donate organs like my sister did."