Visakhapatnam: The King George Hospital (KGH) of Visakhapatnam, which is considered to be a lifeline for patients from north coastal AP and Odisha, will soon begin performing kidney transplants from deceased donors.
The Jeevandan AP Inspection Committee has approved KGH to act as a deceased donor kidney transplantation centre. According to KGH officials, underprivileged patients suffering from irreversible kidney ailments will soon be able to undergo kidney transplants at KGH.
The hospital is equipped with all the necessary infrastructure, including operation theatres, post-transplant wards, and transplant equipment; it has already been performing renal transplants from live donors.
Dr G. Krishna Murthy, the CEO of Jeevandan, has asked KGH officials to recruit a transplant coordinator and a grief counsellor before beginning the cadaver transplants. “The grief counsellor will play a key role in the effective functioning of the deceased donor transplantation programme.
The counsellor will shoulder the responsibility of counselling and convincing families to donate kidneys at a time when they are experiencing grief from the death of their loved ones.
KGH officials will receive registrations from the patients waiting for a kidney. We will allot some brain-dead donors to KGH, to facilitate cadaver kidney transplantations,” he says.
KGH will be the third deceased kidney transplantation centre to be set up in Andhra Pradesh, after Kurnool Government Hospital and Gu-ntur Government Hospital.
However, the two other hospitals are yet to perform any deceased kidney transplantations. Dr G. Arjuna, the Supe-rintendent of KGH, says they want to be the first government hospital to perform a kidney transplant in Andhra Pradesh.
“The transplantation centre at KGH will help people from the weaker sections of the society who cannot pay lakhs of rupees for a transplant at a private hospital. We will actively promote deceased organ donation, which can give a new lease of life to ailing patients. Live kidney transplantations are going on in full swing at KGH. We have performed six kidney transplants this year,” he says.
Dr G. Krishna Murthy adds, “We don’t charge anything for transplantation or for the consumables. Even the medications are provided to patients free of cost. For HLA matching, KGH has entered into an agreement with a private hospital in Vizag.”
