Successful Bone Marrow transplant conducted on Sawai Man Singh medical student

Jaipur: The successful bone marrow transplant operation of an 18-year-old, underweight, Ist year student Rohan of Sawai Man Singh College(SMSMCH), at the college hospital is indeed a feather in the institution's cap. Rohan was discharged from the hospital on Saturday.

A kitty of Rs 10 lakh was collected from students of various medical colleges of the state, for the operation to be conducted.

The 30 day recovery period after the operation saw the boy struggle against septic shock, as well as, anaphylaxis, a life-threatening reaction.However, the doctors were able to keep the situation well under control.

"He was discharged from the hospital on Saturday. He is fine now. "But for the next 90 days, we will keep monitoring his health," said Dr Sandeep Jasuja, Head, Medical Oncology, SMS Medical College, who performed the transplant.

"It was the most complicated bone marrow transplant, full of risks, that I have performed so far. We took the chance as we didn't have any other option to save his life. He was suffering from aplastic anaemia," Dr Jasuja added

The doctors initially could not find a bone marrow donor to match Rohan's human leukocyte antigen (HLA) completely. However, later his younger brother was found to be matching by half.

This turned out to be a ray of hope, as the team decided to conduct a haploidentical bone marrow transplant, which is done when HLAs of the donor and recipient are found to be half matching. SMS Hospital has already performed nine such transplants.

The challenge, however, lay in the fact that both the donor and the patient had different blood groups.

"It was because Rohan's blood group didn't match with that of his brother that the patient developed anaphylaxis," the doctor told TOI.