16-year-old Sheikhpura girl has no donor for kidney transplant

BIHARSHARIF: A 16-year-old Sheikhpura girl, who passed her class X examination in first division this year, needs immediate kidney transplant. But her parents are neither willing to donate or manage a kidney nor are able to meet the expenses because of poverty.

Kanchan Kumari, a resident of Aabgil Chande village under Sheikhpura sadar block, is eldest of her five siblings.

“She fell ill around two months ago and was undergoing treatment at Sheikhpura and Biharsharif . The doctors said both her kidneys had stopped functioning and she urgently required transplant,. She was taken to IGIMS at Patna, where doctors said the same thing. The doctors at IGIMS said besides kidney, surgery will cost Rs5 lakh, but there is no guarantee of survival,” Kanchan’s grandfather Baleshwar Yadav said.

“If her father Ramashray gives his kidney to her then he will not be able to carry out his work with one kidney and our survival would be at stake as he is a daily wager and the only breadwinner of the family,” Baleshwar said.

Baleshwar said they decided to take Kanchan home as they did not have money. Ramashray’s cousin Upendra Yadav, who recently retired from Army, said if something went wrong with Ramashray after donating his one kidney, who would look after his family of seven persons.

Sheikhpura DM Inayat Khan said she would speak to the officials concerned in this regard and do whatever was possible.

Incidentally, very few women in Bihar receive kidney from their relatives, though they outnumber men when it comes to donating it. As per the data available with this newspaper, total 77 kidney transplants have been carried out in Bihar so far, in which 77% of the donors were women, but only 8% of them were recipients.

The data is from two hospitals in Patna where kidney transplant is done —- Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical sciences (IGIMS) and Paras HMRI. Of the total 77 transplants, 54 were at IGIMS and 23 at Paras HMRI. All the transplants involved relatives and majority of them were either mothers or wives.