PGI team flies to Jodhpur to save patient’s life

Doctors of the PGI conducted a simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplant yesterday after the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisations (ROTTO North), All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Jodhpur, allocated organs of a brain-dead patient to the institute here.

Led by Dr Ashish Sharma, Prof and Head, Department of Renal Transplant Surgery, a team of the PGI undertook a challenging journey to make this organ-retrieval mission possible.

Overcoming logistical hurdles, the team travelled by road overnight to Delhi and took a 6:45 am flight to Jodhpur on November 3. After the successful retrieval of the organs, the team took a flight from there the same day. They handed over one kidney to a team of the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS), Delhi, at the Delhi airport en route to Chandigarh.

After landing at Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, the team reached the PGI here at 7:05 pm the same day through a green corridor.

The family of a 23-year-old man, who sustained serious injuries and was declared brain dead despite efforts by the doctors of AIIMS, Jodhpur, consented to donating his organs.

Since there was no matching recipient for the kidneys and pancreas locally, the ROTTO (North) allocated two organs to the PGI for a simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant and gave the second kidney to the ILBS, New Delhi. The liver was transplanted on a matching recipient at AIIMS, Jodhpur.

The success of this mission is a testament to the power of organ donation and the lengths medical professionals go to in their commitment to saving lives.