Kidney patients need financial help for transplant

PATNA: Although IGIMS has crossed many hurdles in making organ donation a possibility in the state, it still struggles to dispel myths and arrange funds to make the whole procedure free of cost.
Talking about the awareness that has been created so far, HoD of IGIMS’s ophthalmology department, Dr Bibhuti Prasad Sinha, said the IGIMS has started receiving voluntary eye donations as well.Addressing a continuing medical education (CME) programme, he said, “It is necessary to create awareness about organ donation and dispel the religious myths associated with it.” He put forth a proposal to make IGIMS eye bank the centre of excellence while creating several eye collection centres in the districts from where tissue could be brought to IGIMS. He also called for the issuance of more transplantation licences in the state so that more doctors perform organ transplantations.
Nephrology department’s HoD Dr Om Prakash said IGIMS has also taken positive strides in deceased donor transplantation, which will allow them to harvest multiple organs and transplant them. “Although the government provides Rs2.5 lakh for kidney transplantation, an additional sum of Rs15 to Rs20 lakh is needed for immune suppressants, which majority of our patients cannot afford and they stop taking medicines after 2-3 years. Due to that, the organ gets rejected and the patient dies. Patients also have to undergo dialysis for some years before transplantation. In many states, like Orissa and Assam, the government provides free immune suppressants for life to those who have undergone organ transplantation. Many states also provide free dialysis,” he said.
Talking about the liver transplant that will starting at IGIMS soon, its medical superintendent Dr Manish Mandal said Bihar would be the 6th state in India to have this facility. “Nearly 1 lakh people in the state suffer from stomach and liver problems, and 800-900 of them are liver patients who die. Out of these 800 to 900 people, we can save nearly 150 people if they undergo liver transplant surgery,” he said.
He requested the government to help the hospital with funds as each patient that undergoes liver transplant will require Rs20 lakh.