14-year-old had given up hope until his doctors found a 'half-match' in his father
Omkar Matunge, 14, had given up all hope of living after his bone marrow stopped functioning. But his father Bharat came to the rescue.
In a very rare case, Omkar received his father's bone marrow, even though the genetic profiles of their bone marrows were not matching. Two months ago, a ray of hope emerged for Omkar after doctors at private-run PD Hinduja hospital in Mahim conducted a half-match or a Haplo-identical bone marrow transplant on him. The process of a half-match transplant is a saviour for patients who do not have matched donors and cannot access unrelated donors.
The doctors claimed that it is the first half-match transplant in Mumbai and only a handful have been conducted in India in the past two years. Bone marrow is a soft tissue in hip and thigh bones which produces blood cells in the body.
Six years ago in Kolhapur, Bharat noticed that his playful school-going son Omkar was growing pale. "On conducting health tests, Omkar's haemoglobin levels were found to be as low as four units. Doctors told me that he suffers from Aplastic Anaemia and they would require a bone marrow transplant to save his life. Since then we were running helter skelter for his treatment. Omkar has dropped out of school since the past two years," Bharat said.
A bone marrow transplant in India can cost between Rs20-25 lakh, if a patient manages to obtain a matching donor in the family or from bone marrow registries in India. There are only four registries in India with less than a lakh registered donors. The chance of obtaining a match from a random donor is one in over 10,000. However, very few persons pledge their bone marrow as there is low awareness.
For five years, Omkar was getting blood and platelet transfusion from the civil hospital in Kolhapur. A bone marrow donor with full genetic match to that of Omkar was not found in the family or from random donors at large.
The bone marrow cells from Bharat's hip bone were injected out and processed. In the meanwhile, Omkar's bone marrow was completely destroyed and the doctors monitored ensuring that his White Blood Cell (WBC) count came to zero. "Omkar was kept in a sterile ICU to ensure he does not catch infection. His father's bone marrow was later transfused into Omkar's blood stream. Eventually, Bharat's bone marrow cells were accepted in Omkar's body and a new bone marrow was formed. Omkar will completely recuperate in six to eight weeks," said Dr Padate. "He is disease free. Also, his blood group which was earlier B+, changed to AB+, which is his father's blood group."
Omkar, wants to be a policeman when he grows up. "I am waiting to join school and study. I am aching to go back to playing cricket with my friends," said Omkar.
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