A 3-year-old boy from Safapora in Ganderbal district of Kashmir was suffering from a rare disease called Haemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). In this disease, the body’s immune system becomes very active and attacks its own organs and healthy blood cells. People can suffer from this disease genetically or can suffer from it later also. The most important thing is that if this disease is not dealt with in time, it can also be fatal. It can be cured only through hematopoietic stem cell transplant i.e. also called bone marrow transplant.
At present, the life of this 3 year old innocent child of Kashmir has been saved. A girl from Poland donated her stem cells to him. A German organization did the work from identification of the donor to transportation of the bone marrow. This transplant was carried out by the doctors of Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Srinagar.
Headlines
1.A 3 year old innocent child from Kashmir’s Ganderbal district suffered from a deadly rare disease named HLH.
2.A girl from Poland saved the child’s life by donating her bone marrow.
3.A German organization did the work from identification of the donor to transportation of the bone marrow.
4.Child’s bone marrow transplant done at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar
Director of SKIMS said- This is a big achievement for us
Professor Ashraf Ghani, Director of Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, said that ‘First of all, a matching donor was identified for the child through the International Bone Marrow Donor Network of Germany’s DKMS Registry. Then the stem cells taken from the donor were brought to SKIMS in Poland. Here a few days ago it was transplanted inside the child. The German organization bore the entire cost of transportation.
He further said that ‘Sher-e-Kashmir is a big achievement for the Institute of Medical Sciences. Very few centers in India do ‘Matched Unrelated Donor’ (MUD) transplant. This is the first procedure of its kind in our institute too, in which we have been successful and the child’s life could be saved.
The child’s father had come to SKIMS 2 years ago.
About two years ago, when the child was 12 months old, his father brought him to SKIMS from Safapora in Ganderbal district complaining of weakness, weight loss, increased blood platelet count and liver enlargement. His father said that the child was completely healthy before this. In such a situation, when the doctors examined, they came to know that the child was suffering from a rare disease called HLH. The child’s father had also lost his daughter to the same disease three years ago. Knowing this, he was extremely nervous.
Dr. Reshma Roshan’s team treated the child
After knowing about the child’s illness, his father contacted Dr. Reshma Roshan, Associate Professor of SKIMS. Dr. Reshma along with Professor Sajjad Ahmed Gilani, Head of Clinical Hematology Department and Dr. Afaq Ahmed Khan started the treatment of the child. He told that there was no matching donor in the child’s family. He said that the good thing was that a donor was found and we were able to transplant the MUD.
The child’s condition is stable, his test report is also normal.
Doctor Reshma further said that the patient’s condition was stable and good. His investigation report is also normal. He has also been discharged from the hospital on 23rd June i.e. Tuesday. Now he will have outpatient follow-up. At the same time, Professor Sajjad Ahmed Gilani said that the donors for bone marrow transplant are usually those brothers and sisters whose HLA matches completely.
He told that in this case there is another option of transplantation. A haploidentical or half-matched transplant should be obtained from the parents. At the same time, MUD transplant is done when a suitable donor is found through the International Registry. The risk of complications is lower with matched sibling donors compared to haploidentical or MUD transplants. He also said that donating bone marrow stem cells is generally safe. This causes no harm to the donor.
Father made this appeal to the medical college
Expressing happiness over his child’s recovery, his father said, ‘I am happy that my child has recovered. Along with this, he also appealed to start donor registration facility in SKIMS. He also said that he will be the first person to register for this initiative of the hospital. On this issue, SKIMS Director Professor Ashraf Ghani said that if such a facility is started, more people register in it and their HLA profile is included in the donor registry, then the lives of patients needing stem cell transplant can be saved.
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