First cadaver kidney transplantation in Odisha performed

Doctors of a state-run hospital in Cuttack performed Odisha's first cadaver kidney transplantation on a 31-year-old person on Tuesday, officials said.

The kidney of 26-year-old donor Priyankarani Patra was transplanted on Khirod Sahoo after a three-hour-long surgery at SCB Medical College and Hospital, they said.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik lauded the doctors and the donor's family.

Doctors of a private hospital in Bhubaneswar declared Priyankarani Patra of Ganjam district's Digapahandi brain dead on Monday night, days after she sustained critical injuries in a road accident, following which her family members agreed to donate her organs, officials said.

On the direction of the state health department, doctors of the state-run hospital visited the private medical institution and removed Patra's kidney, later transplanting them on Sahoo, they said.

"My son was undergoing treatment for the last eight months. This operation has saved his life," said Khirod Sahoo's mother Mithila.

A relative of Patra said though they mourn her loss, they are happy that she will live in someone.

"We would have been happier if her other organs like heart, liver and eyes could also be used to save other people's lives," he said.

Patnaik appreciated Patra's family who agreed for the organ donation and the doctors who conducted the operation.

"I congratulate the SCBMCH doctors for conducting the state's first cadaveric kidney transplant and also the family members of Priyanka of Ganjam district for donating her organ. This has created a new history in Odisha's organ transplant and modern treatment," Patnaik tweeted in Odia.

Meanwhile, the Bhubaneswar-based private hospital, in a statement, has claimed that its doctors conducted the first transplantation of one kidney on another patient after a six- hour-long surgery.

The statement said that the other kidney was transported to SCB Medical College and Hospital for another transplantation.