Amritsar, November 11
Kulwant Singh (58), with an amputated leg, who underwent as many as 34 operations in India and the USA, had to go to Pakistan for kidney transplantation as there is a ban on getting kidney of unrelated persons in India.
After getting a fresh lease of life at Lahore’s Ahsan Mumtaj Hospital, he, however, finds it difficult to get proper post-operative care in India. He has not been able to get visa to visit Pakistan again despite his best efforts.
With Lahore becoming a new hub of kidney transplantation in Asia, Pakistan has become a much sought-after destination for Indian patients of renal failure. Indian patients are getting an attractive package for kidney transplantation. Unlike India, they (patients) don’t have to undergo lengthy procedures. They need to deposit Rs 10,000 (US dollars) with the hospital management of Lahore, which arranges a donor.
Mr Kulwant Singh, who underwent kidney transplantation in Lahore on June 27 this year, disclosed that after Rasheed Hospital, more hospitals had started kidney transplantation due to the liberal policy of the government of Pakistan. However, Amritsar is no more the hub of kidney transplantation due to the stringent measures taken by the state and Central Government. Already many patients from Punjab, especially Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Patiala, had visited Lahore for kidney transplantation. Patients from other parts of the world, including developed counties also visit Lahore to get kidney.
Narrating his experience, Mr Kulwant Singh said kidney donors were easily available in Pakistan. He said he had gone to Pakistan for kidney transplantation through a Delhi-based hospital, which had tied up with the Lahore-based hospital and arranged visa to visit Pakistan. One does not have to arrange a kidney as donors were easily available in Pakistan. He said the 31-year-old Pakistani youth who had donated him kidney told him that he had to do so because of his precarious economic condition. He told Mr Kulwant Singh that he was given Rs 60,000 (Pakistan currency) for the organ. However, Mr Kulwant Singh had to cough up more than 13 lakh for the kidney transplantation.
