A 17-year-old male patient from Ahmedabad suffering from kidney failure received a new lease of life through the kidneys donated by the parents of a brain dead two-year-old child, Ved Zinzuwadia, in Rajkot, Gujarat. According to Dr. Vineet Mishra, Director, Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre (IKDRC), Ahmedabad, this is the first time that the organs of a two-year-old child have been donated in the state. IKDRC, situated in the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital campus, was designated a semi-COVID facility in April and had not conducted any organ transplants since 24th March 2020 owing to the pandemic. The Gujarat government gave doctors permission to begin transplants again in mid-May. Dr. Pranjal Modi, transplant surgeon at IKDRC and the Convenor of Gujarat State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO), performed the surgery on 31st May. “We performed en bloc kidney transplant on the 17-year-old male patient with kidneys procured from the child who became brain dead due to spontaneous intracranial haemorrhage from a brain tumor. This was the first transplant by IKDRC following the lockdown.” 

Dr. Divyesh Viroja, Head of the Department of Nephrology, at the B. T. Savani Hospital in Rajkot that retrieved the kidneys said, “Ved’s parents are both pharmacists and are aware about the need for organ donation. So, when their child suffered from brain haemorrhage that left him brain dead, they agreed for organ donation. The child was brought here for organ removal and the recipient was brought from Ahmedabad by IKDRC. The recipient was discharged within five days and is doing well now.”