Kidney trade: ‘Dirty’ doctors are public servants

Surgeon worked at Lahore General Hospital.

LAHORE:

Three of the four doctors suspected of running an illegal kidney transplant operation from a rented house were in government service, including the surgeon who did the transplants.

Dr Sanaullah, who was not among the eight people arrested by Cantonment police on Friday and is still at large, worked at Lahore General Hospital for eight years doing legal kidney transplants, according to colleagues and the police.

He did his MBBS degree from Quaid-i-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur, and is a Fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Police believe he led a team of three other doctors and at least five assistants during the illegal transplants.

A senior doctor at the LGH urology department said that Dr Sanaullah had worked at the department for eight years. He had recently been transferred to Ganga Ram Hospital but had been trying to get himself posted back to LGH, The Express Tribune learnt.

Dr Sanaullah’s LGH colleague said that a transplant was conducted in two stages: first, remove the kidney from the donor; and second, transplant it into the patient. “Neither is a complicated procedure. A single surgeon can do it with the help of assistants if the right equipment is available,” he said.

Of the seven people arrested on Friday, three were doctors. An official at Services Hospital confirmed that Dr Mubashir had been training at the hospital to become an anaesthetist.

Dr Ali Imran, who is believed to be part of the team that conducted the illegal transplants and is also at large, had been at Mayo Hospital’s anaesthesia ward for two years, said an official there.

Dr Anees, the fourth doctor on the team and who is under arrest, ran a private clinic.

Cantonment Division Superintendent of Police Amin Bokhari confirmed to The Express Tribune that Dr Sanullah, Dr Imran and Dr Mubasher had worked at public hospitals. He said that police were searching for the two missing doctors and Muhammad Khurshid, the owner of the house near the airport where the operations were conducted.

During their raid on the house in Al Faisal Town on Friday, Cantonment police also arrested an Indonesian man named Abdullah who was the presumed recipient of a kidney.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2011.