My kidney for your man, yours for mine

The Authorisation Committee of PGI Chandigarh has approved this ‘cross donations’ between total strangers.

Last July, Mritunjaya Singh (38) from East Champaran in Bihar was told his kidney was not responding: ‘‘I was a diabetic and also had an eye problem which I had to get corrected before coming to PGI for renal transplant surgery.’’

At PGI, he found that his wife, Meera Devi’s B positive blood group did not match with his (A positive). And none of his immediate relatives could donate as all were diabetic.

Somewhere in PGI, Kishori Lal (40) from Shimla was also looking for a donor. His blood group too did not match with that of his wife, Suman Devi. Then began the search for a ‘suitable match’.

Nine months later, they found each other at a private dialysis centre in Sector 16. ‘‘To our surprise — and relief — we found that we could cross-donate kidneys to each other’s spouse as our blood groups cross-matched,’’ says Mritunjaya.

As luck would have it, all other tests also cross-matched. Treating it as an exceptional case, PGI’s Authorisation Committee did not take long to give a go-ahead to the cross-donation.

Meera was ready to donate her kidney to Kishori Lal. And Suman to Mritunjaya.

‘‘As I see it, I am not donating my kidney to a complete stranger. I am donating it to my husband,’’ says Meera. ‘‘My father died of kidney failure in 1990,’’ says Mritunjaya. ‘‘None of his relatives could help him then.’’

Kishori says his sisters could have helped, perhaps. ‘‘But their in-law refused to let them donate their kidneys. But all’s well that ends well. We have found each other,’’ he says, smiling at Mritunjaya and Meera.

It all depends on the surgeons now, who will be conducting four operations simultaneously as soon as the date is fixed. Mritunjaya, Meera, Kishori and Suman are prepared.