Deptt. of Nephrology, PGIMER launches Website to facilitate Kidney Paired Donation (KPD) to mark the observance of World Kidney Day
Chandigarh : March 10 : Deptt. of Nephrology, PGIMER took another commendable step forward with the launch of Website www.indiakpd.org to facilitate Kidney Paired Donation (KPD) at an impressive event organized to mark the observance of World Kidney Day.
World Kidney Day is observed every year on the second Thursday of March, as a global campaign to raise awareness about kidney disease.
Prof. Jagat Ram, Director PGIMER graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and formally inaugurated the website launched to help incompatible donor-recipient pairs find optimal donors.Other dignitaries marking their personal presence included Prof. Gurpreet Singh, Dean (Research) & Head, Deptt. of General Surgery, Kumar Gaurav Dhawan, DDA, Kumar Abhay, FA, Prof. H.S.Kohli, Head, Deptt. of Nephrology, Prof. Manish Rathi, Dr. Raja Ram Chandran, faculty members and resident doctors from the Deptt. of Nephrology, PGIMER.
Commending the initiative of the department, Prof. Jagat Ram, Director PGIMER stated, “ the status of the department in the global nephrology arena can be assessed by the fact that both the presidents of International and American Society of Nephrology are PGI alumni, PGI is also amongst the largest transplant centres in the public sector in the country, and they continued to transplant during COVID times; none of transplants done during last year had any complication of severe COVID illness.”
The Director further shared, “Nephrology department took the challenge of COVID 19 head on and provided round the clock dialysis facility at the COVID hospital at NHE in PGI. Indeed, over 1500 dialysis in COVID positive patients have been done. Events like these bring hope to those who are suffering from this disease. “
Prof H.S. Kohli, Head, Deptt. of Nephrology while addressing gave a rough idea about the enormity of this illness in our country as he said, “ The burden of Chronic kidney failure is huge in India, more than 12 crore people battle this illness. Every year close to 3 lacs end with end stage kidney failure where they either need dialysis or transplantation to sustain life. The irony is hardly one third have an access to dialysis/transplantation and of these too around 10 % can sustain it over a long period.”
Reiterating the theme of the year, “Living well with Kidney Disease”, Prof. Manish Rathi said, “Despite this dismal picture patients with kidney failure can live pretty well.” To demonstrate this Ms Surekha, a doctor by profession a patient who received drug therapy, hemodialysis, chronic ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, a live and then a deceased kidney transplantation shared her journey of 27 years so far. Dr Surekha was a young lady, a doctor by profession, diagnosed with chronic kidney failure way back in 1994 when she was 38-year-old. She was subsequently started on maintenance hemodialysis, and later, in 1996, she received a kidney allograft as a gift from her mother in the Department of Nephrology, PGIMER, Chandigarh. She was living her life well after her kidney transplant for 14 years, after which her allograft failed, and she then underwent maintenance hemodialysis once again in 2011. She also received peritoneal dialysis, an alternative form of home dialysis where a catheter is placed in the abdomen to exchange and facilitate toxin removal.
Subsequently, she was enlisted for the deceased donor registry in the Department of Nephrology, PGIMER, Chandigarh, for a second kidney transplant. In 2014, she received a second kidney transplant from a brain-dead person when his family decided on a deceased organ donation despite the grief following their loved one’s death. She has been living an everyday life ever since. At the time of her kidney disease diagnosis, her son was 8-year-old, and her daughter was 13-year-old and wanted to ensure she secured professional jobs for their future. Now, her children are working, her son as an engineer and her daughter as a dentist. Today, she is retired (from Punjab civil medical services), a proud grandmother of two young girls, and frequently involves herself in charity work. Fear and apprehension were coming along with her kidney disease, but she has lived well with all of them and testifies to the theme of this year’s world kidney day- “LIVING WELL WITH KIDNEY DISEASE”.
Later Dr Raja Ram Chandran detailed about the website for Kidney paired donation (KPD) as he shared, “In renal transplant, we intend to have a paramount addition to addressing deficiency of patients with kidney disease finding compatible living donors. On this front, the Department of Nephrology envisages launching the kidney paired donation programme. Paired kidney donation is a process of exchange of recipient/donor pairs who are related but incompatible (blood group being different or HLA incompatible because of antibodies), but the recipient of one pair is compatible with the donor of the other pair. KPD is a distinctive way that transplant centres can support such pairs and increase the donor pool. The Department of Nephrology starts this endeavour by creating a website www.indiakpd.org where such recipient/donor pairs can register. Nearer centres outside Chandigarh can register too and contribute and benefit from the increasing pool of donors. The best part of the website, both patients and nephrologist/ transplant surgeons can register.
The event concluded with a very engaging question answer session.
