A leading city urologist has written a letter to the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) and the health minister complaining about an “irregular” kidney transplant.
A leading city urologist has written a letter to the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) and the health minister complaining about an “irregular” kidney transplant on June 15 at a 600-bedded hospital that recently came up in Thane.
The complaint by Dr JG Lalmalani, urologist, Jaslok Hospital, said the transplant was performed by urologists Dr PP Rao from Mamata Hospital, Dombivili, and Dr Ajay Kanbur from Shivneri Hospital, Thane, who have “no significant experience in transplants whatsoever.”
“They performed the transplant despite the fact that they have never been granted permission for doing kidney transplants by any competent authority in any hospital,” the complaint alleged.
The hospital in question had recently got provisional permission for kidney transplantation, granted specifically for two visiting surgeons from Bombay Hospital, Dr Umesh Oza and Dr SW Thatte.
But “the transplant was clandestinely performed on Sunday without the presence, information, or consent of either of the two doctors,” the urologist said in his complaint to Dr PP Doke, director, DHS.
Dr Doke said he is yet to verify the complaint. “I will have to check the registry to see if the two doctors were registered to perform transplants.”
Hospitals and transplant surgeons are required by law to apply for, and acquire, hospital-specific and surgeon-specific permissions from the DHS. As a rule, five doctors from big hospitals and two or three doctors from smaller hospitals are granted permission. “After the hospital applies for permission, a team of experts visits the hospital to investigate if facilities are adequate and also checks the record of the doctors to find out if they are competent. This process takes up to two months,” said Doke.
Hurdle in Amit Kumar case: Investigations against Amit Kumar alias Santosh Raut, the main accused in the multi-crore kidney racket, have hit a roadblock. The Mahim police got custody of Kumar and his brother Jeevan on Tuesday. They are now desperately hunting for the two complainants — Ramji Rao and Srinivas Rao; the complaints were registered in 2005.
The complainants claimed they were lured by agents to sell their kidneys for a hefty sum. However, they got a paltry sum after the transplant.
“They are beggars. We hope to trace them soon,” said a police officer, requesting anonymity. The police said the complainants did not know where the surgery was conducted. “We only know that the alleged transplant took place in Delhi,” the officer said.
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