NRS Med College first in state to perform bone marrow transplant
Hosp has performed these transplants on about 100 patients free-of-cost
NRS Medical College and Hospital is the first state-run health establishment in Bengal that has performed bone marrow transplant on around 100 patients over the last few years, completely free-of-cost.
A cancer patient Bela Sarkar’s case has been the latest on whom the Hematology department of the NRS Medical College and Hospital performed the bone marrow transplant.
The patient needed a bone marrow transplant but many hospitals refused saying that the patient may not be cured. NRS Medical College came to the rescue of the patient and now, after undergoing the transplant, the patient has been recovering well.
Last week, the hospital performed bone marrow transplant on a 28-year-old Rajeswar Pal who was also suffering from cancer. The family members of the patient have heaped praises on the Mamata Banerjee government for providing top health facilities completely free-of-cost.
For the transplant to be carried out at any top private health establishments across the country, the families would have to shell out a few lakhs.
Some of the private hospitals are extending the health service like gene therapy but patients have to pay at least Rs 30-40 lakh for the treatment.
NRS Medical College and Hospital had given a fresh lease of life to a 24-year-old youth, a leukemia patient by carrying out bone marrow transplant a few months ago. Bone marrow was taken from the patient’s younger brother as their genes matched.
The patient, Pintu Mahanta, came to the hospital along with his father and younger brother. After he was admitted, a high -power chemotherapy was performed on the patient and a team of doctors was also formed at the hospital.
The doctors required bone marrow from his relatives but the patient’s father’s genes did not match. Luckily, Mahanta’s younger brother’s genes partially matched and the doctors decided to extract bone marrow from the brother of the patient.
The patient has shown significant improvement after the transplant. Dr Tufan Dalui, head of the department of Hematology said that the NRS Medical College is the first government-run hospital to conduct a costly transplant like bone marrow.
In the latter half of last year, the NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata had achieved an outstanding feat by curing a blood cancer patient from neighbouring Jharkhand through bone marrow transplant. The treatment lasted over two and half months and was also done free-of-cost.
