Iraqi boy of three youngest to get new kidney in India

A three-year-old Iraqi boy has successfully undergone a kidney transplant, becoming the youngest so far in India to receive a donor kidney. The child got a new lease of life at a Faridabad hospital, doctors said here on Thursday.

The boy, Ahmad, suffered renal failure and was on haemodialysis at a hospital in Iraq. Later, when no further treatment was possible, he was referred to the Faridabad-based Asian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), which is globally renowned for advances in kidney transplant.

Admitted at the hospital in January this year, the child was examined by a team of doctors who decided to perform the kidney transplant.

The biggest hurdle for the doctors was the boy's very tender age, hence there was a need to consider the post-surgery health conditions too.

"Ahmad was detected with kidney failure at the age of three, normally such children are put on peritoneal dialysis till they grow in size to receive a kidney transplant," Vijay Laxmi, transplant Surgeon at the Asian Institute of Medical Sciences, told reporters at a press conference.

"As the child was very young, kidney transplant was quite challenging," she said, adding that most Iraq hospitals lacked advanced medical processes.

"Stress of surgery is also challenging for a child with kidney failure. However, due to nonavailability of any suitable treatment in Iraq, the choice remained between death and the transplant. Our team at Asian Hospital accepted this challenge and transplanted his grandfather's kidney into this child on May 22," Vijay Lakshmi added.

"As expected the post-operative course was very turbulent with child developing stress cardiomyopathy, requiring prolonged ventilator support. However, the situation improved slowly," said Jitendra Kumar, director nephrology and kidney transplant department at the hospital.

"Now the child has successfully completed more than a month of transplant, his recovery and grateful eyes of his family is the greatest reward for our team," Kumar added.

"We often treat international patients, but in this case due to the age of the patient, doctors were afraid to operate. The patient was in the hospital for six months but now we are happy that child is fine and ready to return to his country," said N.K. Pandey, chairman and managing director of AIMS.