KARACHI, Jan 25: A young social worker from Hunza valley continued to be kind to humanity even after her death as her kidneys and eyes were transplanted into four persons
, thanks to the decision of her family members and the skills of local doctors.
"The two young recipients of the cadaver kidneys, who were on dialysis before the operation, are doing well at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) and will be discharged shortly,'' a senior doctor told Dawn on Tuesday.
The SIUT doctors were able to transplant the kidneys from the 22-year-old woman, Shamim Khan, on Jan 19 only after her family members conveyed their approval for the operation aimed at benefiting the people in dire need of organs.
Shamim Khan's family is of the view that the girl, who always extended help and cooperation to deserving people, particularly women, should be remembered after her death at least by the recipients of her organs.
Ms Khan had been brought to the Aga Khan Hospital in a critical condition and kept in its intensive care unit but she could not be resuscitated. She was declared 'brain dead' jointly by a neurosurgeon and an intensivist, and her life was sustained on life-support machines for a certain period of time.
After the indication that Shamim's family did not object to the transplant of her organs, a SIUT team geared up for an operation and the girl was shifted to the surgical ICU of the Civil Hospital Karachi where she was examined again by a neurosurgeon who confirmed that she was brain dead. However, the family, including the mother and elder brother of the girl, was asked to review their decision.
After a second consent from the guardians of the deceased, the team of urologists at SIUT retrieved the kidneys for transplantation into two renal failure patients who had a good tissues match with the donor. The ophthalmologists of Civil Hospital harvested the eyes which were later donated to the Layton Rehmatullah Benevolent Trust.
According to a SIUT communication, one of the kidneys went to a 32-year-old man who had undergone a kidney transplant in 1987, but was later rejected. He was working for a gymkhana. The second recipient was a 36-year-old married man with two children. He was a teacher by profession in Gilgit.
The corneas were grafted on to a 45-year-old woman, who had lost her vision due to keratitis, and a 24-year-old man who had turned blind due to some infection.
According to the senior SIUT doctor, the first ever cadaver kidneys transplant in the country was done in 1998 when a 22-year old man was declared brain dead after a road accident. With the operation in question, the SIUT has become the only institution in the country where a second kidney transplant from a local deceased has taken place.
Dr Anwar Naqvi of the SIUT said that the gifted corneas and kidneys of the brain dead young social worker had provided sight and normal life to four persons. He appreciated the cooperation of the donor family and described it as 'an act of supreme generosity'.
Had the cadaver organ donation laws been existed in the country, it could have be possible to create further awareness about such donations and get support in regard to more transplant in the country, he observed, adding that once the cadaver legislation became applicable in Pakistan, it would help around 20,000 people receive a kidney transplant, 10,000 liver transplants, 20,000 corneas and 10,000 hearts and lungs annually.
The law in question is prevalent in Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, Syria and Bangladesh, where regular cadaver organ transplants are carried out.
According to Dr Naqvi, the absence of a cadaver donation law in the country is a major source of frustration among patients of various urological diseases which are responsible for the death of a large number of such patients.
