Trans-border lease of life: Indian sister donates kidney for Bangladeshi brother

KOLKATA: Swapan and Anupa Biswas are divided by man-made boundaries but tied by blood. When 43-year-old Swapan, a fish trader from Bangladesh, needed a kidney transplant, his elder sister Anupa, an Indian citizen, readily parted with one of her kidneys.

Swapan underwent a successful kidney transplant surgery on Jan 3 and was discharged from the hospital.

When the duo’s parents fled to India during the 1971 war, their mother carried Anupa in her womb. The family took refuge in Burdwan for years before they returned to their ancestral home in Bangladesh’s Satkhira. They married Anupa to a man in Burdwan before leaving for Bangladesh with their three other children.

“I was still a child when we returned to Bangladesh after the situation improved, leaving my sister behind as she was married by then,” recalled Swapan.
Swapan had been on regular dialysis since he developed end-stage kidney failure in 2018. He even lost his livelihood due to his medical condition. His three sisters, one in India and the other two in Bangladesh, supported him financially.

But when doctors at RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS) in Kolkata advised a renal transplant, Anupa (55) was the first to come forward to offer her kidney.

Doctors found 100% genetic match between the brother and the sister, making them a perfect donor-recipient pair.

While giving a kidney for a blood relation is not rare, this was the first instance in eastern India of an organ transplant involving transborder recipient and donor.

Swapan and Anupa went through a lengthy documentation procedure to get an NOC for the transplant.

“The documentation of the legal papers took a long time, as this was probably the first case of cross-border donation of kidney, but the transplant team, especially Dr Pratik Das and Jayanta Mukherjee, who deals with international patients for the hospital, helped us sail through to get the NOC,” said Sharmitha Biswas, daughter of the donor and the recipient’s niece.

‘Humanity knows no man-made boundaries’
The transplant was done by a team that included nephrologist Pratik Das, renal transplant surgeon Tarshid Ali Jahangir and others. While the donor was discharged a week after transplant, the recipient was declared fit to be released later. Swapan will stay in Kolkata for a few more weeks for follow-up.
“I did not want to trouble anyone and asked them to leave me to my fate. But my sister was firm that she would part with one of her kidneys for me. My brother-in-law and niece stood by her side,” Swapan told TOI.

“This rare cross-border transplant is a testament to how love, blood relations and humanity transcend manmade boundaries — an event happening for the first time in eastern India,” said nephrologist Das of RTIICS.

While the recent turbulence in Bangladesh and the strained relation between the two countries trouble the brother-sister duo, they are hopeful that the neighbours will once more become friends.