Noida, (Samajweekly) In a heart-warming moment, a team of doctors at Jaypee Hospital on Thursday announced they have successfully transplanted a kidney in a five-year-old girl, their first transplant for a young patient at such age.
The girl, suffering from a rare chronic kidney disease (CKD) and hypertension, received the kidney from her mother who volunteered to be a donor and on evaluation, she was found to be fit.
With this, the Delhi-NCR hospital has successfully performed kidney transplanted in 11 pediatric patients, from more than 835 kidney transplants to date.
“There were several challenges before us. The girl’s weight was just 15 kg (it normally has to be around 20 kg for a kidney transplant at such a tender age) and the donor was an adult, hence the size of the kidney was big, along with maintaining post-operative fluid management and immunosuppressant care,” Dr Amit K Devra, Director and Coordinator of the Kidney Transplant Programme at Jaypee Hospital (Noida), told IANS.
“We overcame all these challenges and are delighted to share the news that our youngest kidney transplant recipient has been discharged from the hospital with a fully functioning graft,” he mentioned.
Pediatric kidney transplants are always challenging, from the anesthetist’s careful monitoring of vital signs during the operation to the post-operative management.
“Despite these difficulties, the three-and-a-half-hour surgery was a resounding success, with the donor kidney being harvested from the child’s own mother and connected to the major vessels of the child’s body — the common iliac artery and IVC — with great skill and precision,” Dr Devra informed.
Immediate urine output was observed post-surgery, providing the team of the doctors with the reassurance that the transplant was a success.
There were other societal challenges as well before the team.
Dr Vijay Kumar Sinha, Director, Department of Nephrology and Kidney Transplant, Jaypee Hospital, told IANS that conducting a pediatric transplant is extremely rare and challenging, particularly in a patriarchal society where it can be difficult to convince parents of a girl child to undergo the procedure.
“Our nephrology team meticulously provided dialysis and other essential medical and nutritional support to improve the child’s health for a suitable surgery. Paediatric dialysis is not widely available in India, but we were determined to give the baby the best possible care,” said Dr Sinha.
“With the proper aftercare, we are confident that the baby will grow up to be a healthy and happy child, just like any other,” he added.
