Kidney donor: Court asks hospital to reconsider patient’s application

[Clark]

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Kidney-donor--Court-asks-hospital-to-reconsider-patient-s-application/870601/

Kidney donor: Court asks hospital to reconsider patient’s application
Anuradha Mascarenhas

For the past three years, 55-year-old Vilas Kalbhor of Akurdi has been undergoing dialysis twice a week and getting hospitalised in case of any infection.

When no family members’ blood group matched his, Sanjay Bange, his friend for 15 years, offered one of his kidneys to him, says Kalbhor, who has yet again been hospitalised due to an infection. Permission was not granted. “We were denied permission as it was an unrelated donor kidney,” says Kalbhor, who said he then moved the High Court.

Now the Bombay High Court has directed Ruby Hall Clinic to process the papers required for transplantation and forward it to the regional authorisation committee at B J Medical College within a month so that the application can be reconsidered, he said.

“We tested blood groups of each and every family member but none matched,” says Kalbhor. That’s when they decided to seek permission for an unrelated donor. The Transplantation of Human Organs Act allows only near relatives to act as donors. However, section 9 of the Act states that if an unrelated person wishes to become donor, an application should be made to the local authorisation committee.