Man donates kidney to save sister

Operation was the first after the institute was approved to conduct surgeries under MTRA Act

PESHAWAR: Days after being granted permission by the top regulator, the Institute of Kidney Diseases (IKD) in Peshawar conducted its first kidney transplant.

According to the IKD officials, both the recipient and donor were blood relatives, brother and sister. The recipient was a 23-year old who hailed from Battagram while the donor was her 35-year-old brother.

A senior IKD official said that the transplant was possible after IKD was registered and granted approval for carrying out kidney transplants under the Medical Transplantation and Regulations Authority (MTRA) Act.

Besides IKD, two private health facilities in the provincial capital including Rehman Medical Institute (RMI) and North West General Hospital (NWGH) have been approved by the MTRA to carry out renal transplants.



Apart from kidney transplants, the RMI has also requested the MTRA to grant it permission to conduct liver transplants as well.

Officials privy to the development shared that the MTRA have approved RMI’s request but they have yet to visit RMI’s facility to check if it is properly equipped for carrying out such an operation.

“A visit to the hospital will be conducted as soon as the required formalities for Liver Transplant Centre are complete,” a senior official privy to the development stated.

Earlier, in a meeting of the MTRA held last week, with the K-P Secretary Health Abid Majeed in the chair, the authority had approved the amended rules for Corneal Transplant Centres to be registered under MTRA besides revising the fee for registration and set it as per that charged by the Federal Human Organ Transplant Authority (HOTA).



Health officials privy to the developments shared that the meeting thoroughly discussed the requirement for Corneal Transplant Centres including recognised transplant centres as well as recognised transplant surgeons were registered with MTRA.

Transplant centres, officials said, must have their own ‘eye bank’ (corneal storage facility) with its linkages nationally and internationally registered with the MTRA.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2018.