Hyderabad doctors transplant child’s kidneys to 58-year-old woman in rare surgery

In a remarkable surgery, doctors of Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, transplanted the kidneys from a 14-month-old brain-dead child to a 58-year-old woman.

What made the operation very complicated was that apart from the size of the harvested kidneys, the recipient has been on dialysis for the past seven years and has a pacemaker for her heart condition.

The doctors of KIMS said that this operation has proved that size or age of the organ is no longer a barrier to organ donation.

The team of doctors who performed the surgery was led by Dr. Umamaheswara Rao, Consultant Urologist and Renal Transplant, who observed that the availability of organs was one of the biggest hurdles in cases requiring transplantation. Therefore, in situations such as this, it is very necessary to perform different types of surgeries to save the lives of patients.

Talking to the media he said: “This surgery was done to overcome all boundaries like age and size. It gave new hope to the patient. Many aspects had to be carefully considered. We have to see the size of the collected kidney and the possibility of the recipient’s body’s acceptance. The kidney grows in the human body until the age of three years. After that, it is fully grown and functional.”

He added that the transplanted kidney will continue to grow inside the woman’s body.

Dr. Rao described the surgery to transplant the kidneys harvested from a small baby to the woman as a bold decision. “We have been able to complete this surgery with utmost success with all kinds of precautions.” He appreciated the bereaved family who took the decision to donate the kidneys.

He also praised the team of doctors who included Dr Parag, Dr Chetan, Dr. Diwakar Naidu Gajjala, Dr VS Reddy, Dr Gopichand, Dr Sree Harsha, Dr Naresh Kumar and Dr Murali Mohan and the staff for the successful transplant.