Kidney of a dead transplanted to living ones, ‘first’ in Bangladesh

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) surgeons on Wednesday night successfully transplanted kidneys from a clinically dead person to two different patients.

This is called cadaveric kidney transplant which claimed to be performed first time in the country.

In 1982, the country began transplanting kidneys from living donors. However, extracting a kidney from a clinically deceased patient was illegal. The organ donation law was revised in 2018 to cleared the way of taking organs from a clinically dead with the consent of family.

Sara Islam, a 20-year-old intensive care unit patient who was declared clinically dead on Wednesday afternoon, had her kidneys removed by BSMMU doctors after her mother gave approval.

Habibur Rahman Dulal, a professor of urology department at BSMMU who headed the team of surgeons, said, “Sara Islam was admitted to the hospital four days ago. This is the first example of such transplant in our country. Both the patients who have received Sara’s kidney each are doing well.

A kidney donated to a 34-year-old woman undergoing treatment at BSMMU while the other kidney was sent to National Kidney Foundation Hospital to transplant it in the body of a 39-year-old woman.