3-Yr-Old Girl Is Youngest Recipient Of Kidney Transplant

A three-and-half-year-old girl from Odisha has become the youngest recipient of successful kidney transplant carried out at a Gurugram hospital.

Pratyasha was just a month old when she was diagnosed with Reflex Nephropathy. The medical condition made it difficult for her to pass urine. As a result, the urine used to move towards the kidneys, causing renal problems, ultimately leading to kidney failure.

On consultation with doctors at Gurugram-based Medanta - the Medicity, the parents realized that a kidney transplant was the only solution to save her life but there were no blood group compatible donors.

Read Also: Anam Hashim Is India’s Youngest Female Stunt Rider

The doctors then decided take the mother as the donor. It was a blood group-incompatible transplant since the child was B+ while the mother was A+. This, however, involved the risk of hyper-acute rejection, which was fatal.

To thwart this from happening, the doctors designed a special protocol to remove the anti-bodies before conducting the transplant.

“We did not have a compatible donor, so we had to go for the incompatible kidney transplant. Dialysis on the three-year-old was not easy. After developing a proper plan, we reduced the antibody cells. We used a drug called Rituximab. Nowadays, we have a method called immunoadsorption to remove the anti-bodies,” said Siddharth Sethi, Consultant, Pediatric Nephrology at Medanta.

According to the doctors, the procedure is the the first-ever conducted on such a young patient in entire south Asia. The entire process of surgery cost Rs 24 lakh. Besides that, Pratyusha will now have to be under medication amounting to Rs 12,000-13,000 every month.

The shortage of cadaveric donation for transplant is a global problem. According to statistics, 2,20,000 people in India are waiting for a kidney transplant, out of which only 7,000 are able to receive transplants every year.

Read Also: Woman Born In Refugee Camp To Become Youngest Afghan Pilot To Fly Across World

Charvi Is An Intern With SheThePeople.TV