Pune: When the husband of a 40-year-old homemaker from Pune offered to donate his kidney to save her life, their blood group mismatch emerged among the key hurdles. Meticulous planning and drug use, however, helped doctors to not just perform the transplant surgery, but also prevent organ rejection by the recipient’s body, a major concern in such cases. The woman was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (an auto-immune disease) and lupus nephritis (a kidney disease) in 2015.
Besides, hypertension in the woman remained uncontrolled in spite of trying five different types of medications. In 2020, the woman’s health deteriorated further with the onset of herpes zoster and diabetes. Herpes zoster is a viral infection that causes an outbreak of a painful rash or blisters on the skin.
By April 2021, she had developed early signs of kidney failure, which rapidly progressed, culminating in the need for dialysis by 2023. As her health condition continued to deteriorate, doctors advised an urgent kidney transplant . This is when her husband (43) offered to donate one of his kidneys.
When the couple’s blood was tested, it was found that the husband had an AB positive blood group, while that of the wife was A positive. Besides, the husband had triple renal arteries, a rare anatomy occurring in only 10% of the population. Urologist Dr Anand Dharaskar, one of the doctors who performed the transplant, said, “Performing a transplant in this case was complicated as the donor ha.