United News of Bangladesh

In a milestone achievement surgeons at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) completed the country’s first-ever cadaveric kidney transplant from a clinically dead woman to two separate patients successfully on Wednesday night. BSMMU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Md Sharfuddin Ahmed, also president of National Cadaveric Transplant Committee, revealed this at a press conference at Dr Milon auditorium on Thursday. He said they took the kidneys from the 20-year-old  Sara Islam at the intensive care unit, who was earlier declared clinically dead on Wednesday afternoon, after her mother gave her consent for the operation. The VC said a team of surgeons led by Dr Md Habibur Rahman Dulal, a professor of urology department at the BSMMU, conducted the kidney transplant operation for around six hours from 10:30pm to 4.30am on Wednesday night. The operation was completed successfully in association with the Anesthesia, analgesia and Intensive Care Medicine departments, he said. Read more: Kidney donation: A noble act that can save lives of millions   The kidney donor Sarah who was admitted to the hospital four days ago while the recipients of the kidneys were two female patients recovering well after the surgery, the VC said. Separate surgeries were conducted at the BSMMU and National Kidney Foundation to transplant the kidneys.  One of the kidney recipients was 34-year-old Mirpur resident Shamima Akter and another one the patient at the Kidney Foundation. Apart from this, the cornea of the donor was transplanted to eye patients successfully, he said.  The VC said the brain-death is called the ICU patients whose brains get inactive while those who have no possibility of getting back their lives are cadaveric.    The cadaveric patients can donate their organs unless they are affected with cancer, hepatitis, HIV and other diseases, he said. The namaz-e-janaza of Sara was held in front of the central mosque of the BSMMU before she was buried at the Azimpur graveyard. Sara, the eldest child of Shahidul Islam and teacher Shabnam Sultana, was the first-year-student of the Fine Arts department at private University of Development Alternative. She was affected with irrecoverable tuberous sclerosis when the latter was only 10 months old. “Sara made history as the first organ donor of the cadaveric kidney transplant in the country,” he said, adding that her courage will encourage dying people to donate organs. Many  can be brought to normal life through donation of organs by the cadaveric patients, he observed. The VC thanked the operation head Dr Dulal and his team for becoming successful in the mission. Dr Md Saiful Hossain Dhipu, Dr Faruk Hossain, Dr Kartik Chandra Ghosh, Dr Debashis Banik, Dr Debabrata Banik, Dr Dilip Bhowmick and Dr Md Ashrafuzzaman among others took part in the operation.  Read more: Organ Donation by Living Donor: Which organs can be donated while alive?  

Nepal's popular communist prime minister is in the hospital awaiting his second kidney transplant after months of illness.