& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Innocent pays the price

Doctors refuse to transplant Zahidur’s kidney amid complicated situation after illegal organ trade reports

RlZANUZZAMAN LASKAR
Eleven years ago he found out that his kidney function was down to 49 per cent.
Since then he has eaten healthily, lived sensibly and taken extra care of himself to save his essential organs from further damage.
The 39-year-old patient in September last year heard the dreaded news — 95 per cent of his kidneys had been damaged. He required an immediate transplant.
His sister came forward to donate one of her kidneys. A DNA test proved their kinship and their tissue types matched also.
Zahidur Rahman Mollick Kamrul was admitted to a city hospital for the transplant. But the doctors, out of the blue, refused to go on with the surgery.
The physicians were wary of an ongoing investigation into organ trade
and illegal transplant, said Zahidur, an agriculturalist in the city'sTejturi Bazar area.
By then, though, he had already spent around Tk 2 lakh on medical tests and pre-surgeryprocedures.
Five months on, he still awaits the transplant as only one per cent of his kidneys are functioning now.
He has been surviving on dialysis — a method of treating kidney failure by using a machine.
Going on dialysis twice a week, he has already spent over Tk4 lakh. For this, he had to sell his business and take financial support from his relatives and friends.
Zahidur is only one among dozens of critically ill patients waiting for kidney transplants as the surgeons continue to shy away from surgeries following uproar in national dailies in September last year over illegal organ trade and transplants.
The media had reported about illegal kidney transplants linked to illegal organ trade in the country. Those surgeries were performed without following proper procedures including confirmation of kinship between the donors and the recipients, revealed the reports.
This has ultimately led to immense sufferings for many critical patients as they have to wait for a longer period for the surgery despite having legitimate donors.
Faced with this reality, the country is observing World Kidney Day 2012 today with the theme "Donate --Kidneys for life—receive.”
According to organ transplantation legislation in Bangladesh, only close and blood relatives, including spouse, siblings and off-
spring can donate organs voluntarily.
It, however, does not give any directive on how the kinship will be confirmed.
Physicians admitted that some patients forge documents for non-family donors out of sheer desperation.
Over two crore people — a staggering 16 per cent of the country's population — have been suffering from various kidney diseases, and around 40,000 die every year from kidney failure, according to statistics of Kidney Awareness, Monitoring and Prevention Society.
The Kidney Foundation in the city currently has at least 12 transplant patients with valid donors, said Prof Harun-ur-Rashid, president of the foundation.
“But we have not been able to convince the surgeons to perform the surgeries," he noted adding, the physicians do not want take the risk of being a part [of illegal transplants and donors] and dent their professionalimage.
Surgeons argued that it is not their duty to confirm the relationship between the donor and the recipient.
“We have proposed forming a national body to certify the relationship prior to organ transplant,” ATM Mowladad Chowdhury, a surgeon at BIRDEM Hospital, toldThe Daily Star.
He also insisted that the organ transplant legislation should incorporate altruistic donations.
Around 1,000 kidney transplants have been performed in the country since 1982, of which about 50 had questionable donors, mentioned Prof Harun.
Following the uproar, the Directorate of Health
Services had formed a six-member committee to make tougher legislations to check organ trade.
The health ministry has already drafted a new law based on the recommendations made by the committee, said ministry sources.
The draft has proposed forming a national body to certify the relationship between the donor and the recipient.
It, however, has been gathering dust at the ministry since November last year.