Kidney transplants resume at PIMS after a decade

Patient who had lost both kidneys receives an organ from his mother

ISLAMABAD: After a decade, a kidney transplant facility at the largest tertiary care hospital in the capital has started working again, performing transplants free of charge for deserving patients.

The first operation in this regard was performed on Tuesday as 25-year-old Haripur native Waheed Akhter had kidney grafted at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) kidney transplant unit.

Akhter had suffered complete renal failure after both of his kidneys had failed. Akhter’s mother then donated one of her kidney’s to save her son.



The doctors then swapped his right kidney for the newly donated organ.

A team of Pims doctors from different departments including Professor Iqbal Memon, Professor Tanveer Khaliq, Prof Dr Rizwan Qazi, Dr Musharaff, Dr Sohail Tanveer, Dr Khawar, Pro Rana Imran, Dr Ijaz, and Dr Bangush performed the surgery.

Doctors declared the transplant to be successful and described the patient’s condition as fine as they moved him to an intensive care unit for observation.

“I am thankful for this to the entire team of surgeons, nurses and the technical staff,” remarked Pims Executive Director Dr Amjad Mehmood after the surgery.

Kidney transplants at Pims were stopped after the retirement of Professor Khursheed in 2007, Dr Mehmood explained.

He added that while doctors at the hospital had conducted a few transplant procedures in 2012-13 but their attempts were unsuccessful and the procedures were stopped.

Despite having the necessary resources and equipment, Pims could not continue with transplants since it was not initially registered with the Human Organ Transplant Authority (HOTA) — set up in 2007 to curb illegal transplants. The hospital, though, recently paid the requisite fee to HOTA to register kidney, bone marrow and coronary transplants.

The hospital now joins 12 other transplant hospitals in the twin cities if Islamabad and Rawalpindi, including the Shifa International Hospital, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Quaid-e-Azam International Hospital in Islamabad and Army Liver Transplant Unit and Armed Forces Institute of Urology in Rawalpindi. Pims aims to conduct another transplant surgery on a second patient on Wednesday, with officials planning to conduct two transplants every week and eight transplants every month.



Millions are being charged by private hospitals to conduct surgeries, hence it will be great service if we can offer the facility for free to everyone, especially to the poor and deserving patients, Dr Mehmood said.

We are also trying hard to start liver transplant, the Pims chief executive said, adding that following instructions from the Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, they were hiring surgeons on market rates while their paramedic staff was being trained by Shifa International Hospital to restart the transplant facility at Pims.

However, Dr Mehmood advised caution that it will take around six months to get the facility up to speed.

In May, CJP Nisar had taken notice of how the bone marrow transplant centre was closed. He further expressed apprehension over the closed cardiac centre, suspended liver transplant unit at the hospital. Taking suo moto notice of the matter, the CJP had subsequently called for a report on the matter from the Capital Administration Development Division (CADD).

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2018.