Incredible Decision by Donor Family from Himachal saves 2 Lives through Renal Transplantation at PGIMER
PGIMER once again became witness to saving two more terminally ill patients suffering from end stage renal failure through transplantation, thanks to the incredible decision by the donor family from Himachal to donate the organs of their deceased teenaged son.
Prof. Vivek Lal, Director PGIMER, expressing his deepest gratitude to the donor family, said, “Every donation is a reiteration of faith and continuation of life. It is the exemplary courage of the donor families like this one from Himachal that sustains the deceased donation programme.”
“Also appreciable are the determined efforts by the entire PGIMER team involved in the process which enabled the noble wish of the family to translate into reality by impacting two lives through transplantation.” underpinned Director PGIMER.
After the teenaged donor, a road accident victim, was declared brain dead on 10th February, the transplant coordinators at PGIMER discussed the noble cause of organ donation with the family, to which the family consented, braving their own grave tragedy.
The grief-stricken but brave-heart father of the teenaged donor, who wanted to keep his identity anonymous due to his personal sentiments, said “It’s something no family should have to go through. We said yes to Organ Donation because we knew this could help someone else and they wouldn’t need to go through the heartache that we were going through. We knew it was the right thing to do.”
“We just want people to know about the cause and not who did it as we have done it so that our son re- lives through others. We have done it for our own peace and solace. We hope our child’s story will inspire families who find themselves in the same position. We want to aware people on organ donation to realize that death is not the end of things, people can live on through others, through this,” stated the bereaved father maintaining his calm despite the grave tragedy.
Following the family’s consent, the surgeons retrieved the kidneys from the donor for transplantation to the matching recipients. When the donor organs became available, the first step was an intense round of planning. The teams from the Department of Nephrology, the labs, the transplant and the intensive care unit made sure they were prepared fully and could get into action without any loss of time.
Prof. Vipin Koushal, Medical Superintendent, PGIMER cum Nodal Officer, ROTTO (North) shared his perspective on Cadaver Organ Donation Programme and said, “The demand for organ transplant has increased in the recent past. This is largely due to improvement in post-transplant outcomes. It is now an effective method to cure many terminally ill patients. Expressing his gratitude to the donor family for their exemplary courage, Dr. Koushal hoped that their ‘gift of life’ to others in a time of intense grief would encourage many others to pledge for this noble cause.
Before the transplants, the two matching recipients were suffering from end stage debilitating kidney ailment and had been dependent on kidney dialysis for long.
“I can’t thank the donor family enough for their kindness to have given a second lease of life to my brother. How courageous it was of them despite their own grim tragedy,“ said the sister of one of the kidney recipients, while standing outside the recovery room. Echoing her sentiments, the family of the second recipient said, “It is, in a true sense, a ‘gift of life’.”
Department of Medical Parasitology are invited to Sakura Science Exchange Program to Japan
The students of Department of Medical Parasitology received an award and funding from the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST; Govt of Japan) to visit Japan under the Sakura Science Exchange Program (from January 31, 2023 to February 08, 2023). The complete finances for the visit were provided by the JST, Japan for the participants. In addition all the participants have been enrolled as Sakura Science Club members.
The Sakura Science Program’s objectives include:
To support the development of talented human resources from overseas who have the potential to contribute to innovation in science and technology.
To Accelerate the international brain cycle.
To promote continuous collaboration, cooperation and interaction between Japanese educational and research institutes and overseas ones.
To strengthen good relationship between Japan and other countries and regions that will help science and technology diplomacy.
Five students from the Department of Medical Parasitology were invited by the Japan DST to visit Japan along with Prof Rakesh Sehgal to visit the laboratory of Dr Shinichi Inoue, Associate Professor, Nagasaki University Japan. During the visit, the students were not only made aware of the cutting edge technology of the Japanese laboratories but were also underwent training on the use of the various technologies for one week visit to the laboratory. They also underwent hands on training on the use of transgenic mice for the study of immunology in malaria. In particular, to investigate IFN-γ-production from T cells during malaria, they analyzed splenocytes from rodent Plasmodium parasite-infected IFN-γ reporter mice (IFN-γ-eYFP) by flowcytometry. They made single-cell suspension from spleen tissue and stained it with fluorochrome-conjugated antibodies, then acquired the spleen cells by flowcytometry. Moreover, they analyzed data with Flowjo software in detail by themselves.
The students also learnt of the culture of Japan and visited various museums in Nagasaki as well visited the Atomic Memorial Centre, the Peace park, and Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture in Nagasaki. Nagasaki is famous city that suffered the atomic bomb in human history. They enjoyed to know Nagasaki history and also knew the importance of peace.
Prof Sehgal has been collaborating with the Nagasaki University and Kyorin University Japan under the Indo Japan collaborative projects with Prof Kobayashi and Prof Inoue. It has also been proposed after the visit to further enhance the exchange program and start collaborations between Japan and PGIMER, Chandigarh in the future.
The students who visited Japan stated as follows:
It was an extraordinary experience to visit Japan and see the scientific work being done in the laboratories. The hosts took excellent care of us and we would certainly like to visit Japan again, especially for academic work and would encourage collaborative work between the two countries. The training was extremely beneficial and we experienced first hand the work being done in Japan.
