Public hospital carries out bone marrow transplants

Biological sisters of patients had donated their bone marrow

LAHORE: For the first time in the country, two bone marrow transplant procedures were carried out successfully at a public sector hospital on Tuesday.

Earlier, all bone marrow transplant surgeries were carried out at private hospitals, but the Children Hospital was able to set the record straight. This was announced by Children Hospital Dean Professor Masood Sadiq and Medical Director Professor Ahsan Waheed Rathore during a press conference after successful surgeries were performed on two children named Bilal and Ashir.



The biological sisters of two-year-old Bilal and four-year-old Ashir donated bone marrow for their younger brothers.

Speaking on the occasion, Professor Rathore said that the condition of both the donors and recipients were stable and their health was improving. The chief minister of Punjab had appointed Project Director Dr Tahir Shamsi, who is the pioneer of bone marrow transplantation in Pakistan and the Director of National Institute of Blood Diseases (NIBD) in Karachi.

Professor Rathore said the doctors at the Children Hospital had written history in the country by conducting successful bone marrow transplants at a public sector hospital.

Replying to a question, Dr Shamsi said the procedure was carried out after matching tissue of siblings and after giving anesthesia of 200-250 millilitre. The patients would be in an infection-free atmosphere for seven to eight weeks, he added.

After infusion, the bone marrow would start producing fresh blood, said Dr Shamsi. He added that the successful rate of this treatment was about 70% all over the world.

He added around 2,000 bone marrow transplants had been carried out in the country so far and all of these were done at private hospitals. “Before the Children Hospital Lahore, there was not a single such facility available in the public sector in the country.”

Professor Rathore said that many lives of children could be saved since the bone marrow transplantation facility was made available to those who could not afford to pay for the procedure.

Professor Sadiq said that the Children Hospital has become a centre of excellence. "We are starting a training programme in bone marrow transplantation for doctors, nurses and paramedical staff with a plan to introduce this facility in other hospitals of Punjab such as Nishtar Hospital Multan and Bahawalpur."



Dr Mewish Faizan, who led the team carrying out the transplants, said that this way of treatment was helpful for the treatment of thalassemia, aplastic anemia and cancer. In addition, those patients whose immunity was weak could also be treated by bone marrow transplantation.

She added the entire team would continue their dedicated efforts to conduct more procedures at the Children Hospital. Dr Saima Farhan, Dr Nasir Bukhari, Dr Arifa, Dr Mansoor Mazari, Dr Rukhsana were other members of the medical team who took part in carrying out the surgeries.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2017.