KARACHI: The country’s first dedicated transplant centre established at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) was inaugurated on Wednesday.

Named after late Suleman Dawood, the 14-storey facility has all transplant-related services under one roof. It has been built at the cost of Rs1.5 billion in four years.

“I congratulate Dr Adib Rizvi and his team for building such an excellent transplant facility here. We support the SIUT in all its endeavours,” said Prof Faisal Shaheen, who is currently serving as the director general of Saudi Centre for Organ Transplantation, at the inaugural ceremony.

Prof Shaheen, who had arrived here from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, also performed the facility’s inauguration. In his speech, he discussed in detail the various aspects of deceased organ donation and said it had been successfully carried out in his home country and plans were being made to expand the activity by building more facilities and creating awareness on the subject.

Brain deaths in Saudi Arabia, he said, were regularly reported and the staff of the transplant centre was deputed at health facilities to record such deaths. There was no opposition to the procedure in his home country since there was a fatwa favouring organ donation, he said.

Seasoned journalist and member of the SIUT board of governors Zubeida Mustafa expressed gratitude on behalf of the faculty, staff and trustees of the SIUT to the Suleman Dawood family and said the example set by it should be emulated by other segments of society so that more and more people could benefit from health facilities. “The family’s generous donation is, in fact, a confidence in the SIUT team,” she added.

She also appreciated the missionary zeal of Dr Rizvi who by establishing the SIUT and the transplant facility had achieved a milestone in the medical and healthcare history of Pakistan.

In his brief address, Dr Rizvi thanked Suleman Dawood’s family for their financial assistance to the SIUT especially in setting up the new facility, a 100-station dialysis unit and full-fledged oncology ward. The family was fully aware of the prevailing health crisis in the country and had always helped the institution whenever it looked for support, he said.

Dr Rizvi said: “The centre is designed to meet the future challenges of transplantation science. It will strengthen and boost SIUT activities.”

Also in attendance was Laila Sarfraz and Dr Haroon Ahmed, also a member of SIUT board of governors and trust.

Spread over an area of 250,000 square feet, the 100-bed transplant centre has integrated facilities of intensive care units, transplant wards, a pre-transplant unit, a donor ward and radiology section, an out-patient clinic, a state-of-the-art modern operating theatre, a laboratory and rehabilitation centre. The state-of-the-art centre, both in design and medical facilities, will also provide facilities for multi-organ transplants including liver, intestine, pancreas, bone marrow and cornea.

Published in Dawn December 15th, 2016