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KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Wednesday visited child patients at the liver transplant facility of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) and expressed his pleasure to see a facility in the heart of the metropolis for every needy patient in the country.
“It has impressed me a great deal when I am told that this facility, which has just begun its quest to transplant liver, will go a long way, provided people show generosity in donating organs,” said the CM after cutting a cake along with four children who successfully underwent liver transplantation and were healthy enough to ride their small cycles.
“It was not in the distant past when people would spend millions to go to India for liver transplantation. They will still go there as the SIUT is in its initial phase, but I believe soon people will find the remedy to their ills on their own land to lead a healthier life.”
He praised SIUT director Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi for his huge contribution to service to humanity and went on to say that he was writing the rich history of Sindh by serving mankind.
“One can hardly find such an institution in the world where people get world-class treatment free of cost and what is spectacular here is that everyone in the 2,000 odd staff has the similar urge to serve the people.”
The CM assured Dr Rizvi that the Sindh government would provide all-out support, including financial assistance, to the SIUT’s liver transplant facility.
Dr Rizvi thanked the chief minister for his continuous support for the transplant programme.
He said although the parliament had passed a law for “deceased organ donation” the programme was still off the pace in the country. “We can perform one or two liver transplants if we get frequent donors.”
He said the media was continuously trying to educate the masses for that noble cause and hoped that could convince the general public to come forward and save thousands of people dying due to shortage of organs.
He said even religious scholars had supported the programme and cited the recommendations of a recent seminar held at the Sheikh Zayed Islamic Centre of Karachi University. He said Mufti Munibur Rehman had played a vital role in furthering the SIUT cause.
Prof Rizvi said his organisation needed the support of the government and the media to educate the masses.
The organisers said the SIUT initially had performed liver transplant surgery in collaboration with the Kings College, London, a few years back. Because of the security situation in the country, the programme could not pick up pace. However, they added, the liver transplant programme had been started afresh in collaboration with Shiraz Transplant Centre.
“Now our own people, who have been trained at different centres in the world, are able to take care of liver transplant patients confidently and the SIUT is capable of deceased liver transplantation,” said an organiser.
Liver transplant at Gims
The Gambat Institute of Medical Science (Gims) and a prominent German transplant surgeon, Prof Dr Horst-Dieter Becker, inked an agreement at CM House, according to which Gims will perform liver transplantation within two months.
A spokesman for the CM House said that Gims director Dr Rahim Bakhsh Bhatti signed the deal with Prof Becker, who represented his team from Germany.
Besides the chief minister, health minister Jam Mehtab Dahar and several senior officials were present at the signing ceremony.
According to the agreement, Prof Becker along with seven of his team members — three liver transplant surgeons, one anaesthetist, two nurses and a coordinator — would work at Gims for two years during which they would perform transplant operations and train local doctors and paramedics.
The chief minister said the programme would serve a great deal to the people living in the remote districts of Sindh who could hardly manage to come to Karachi where SIUT had a similar programme in place.
Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2015
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