Humanity won over religion when the relatives of two patients — whose kidneys had failed — swapped organs in order to save each other’s lives.
The ‘pair donor exch-ange’, which took place on November 7 at a city hospital, was the first of its kind in AP, according to the nephrology team at Care Hospital that carried it out.
The patients who underwent the first swap transplant were M.M. Baig, a 50-year-old lab technician and resident of Karimnagar, and 44-year-old M. Devidas, who owns a tailoring shop and lives in BHEL.
Mr Baig said he had already undergone a kidney transplant in 2000, but after the second kidney failure a year ago, he had been on dialysis.
His wife Ayesha Baig was his prospective donor, but their blood groups differed (she was A+ and he was B+) and so she was ruled out as a donor.
The same was the case with Mr Devidas, who suffered kidney failure a year ago and his wife too had an incompatible blood group —B+ while he was A+.
Dr Rajsekhar Chakravar-thy, director, division of nephrology at Care Hospital, said: “Our team decided to carry out the transplant surgery since both the donors were willing to swap their organs and we received permission from the state government as well. Both the transplants happened on the same day in different operation theatres.”
Dr Vikranth Reddy, who was also on the team said the logistics were complicated “as we had to ensure the correct kidney goes to the right patient. Both the patients and the donors are fine now.”