NRS doctors perform bone marrow transplantation on leukemia patient free-of-cost
kolkata: NRS Medical College and Hospital has given a fresh lease of life to a 24-year-old youth, a leukemia patient by carrying out bone marrow transplant. Bone marrow was taken from the patient’s younger brother as their genes matched.
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 has done the treatment at free-of-cost. The patient, Pintu Mahanta, was admitted to the hospital around 40 days ago. He came to the hospital along with his father and younger brother.
Some high power chemotherapy was performed on the patient after he was admitted. A team of doctors was also formed at the hospital. The doctors required bone marrow from his relatives. Patient’s father’s gene did not match to him but his younger brother’s gene partially matched as hence 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. It became possible over a span of two and half months that too at completely free of costs.
The family members of the patient have heaped praises on the Mamata Banerjee government for providing top health facilities at completely free of costs. The treatment would have cost a few lakh of rupees if the family members would have carried out the bone marrow transplant in any top private health establishments across the country. The Hematology department of the NRS Medical College had obtained clearance from the Drug Control General of India. An ‘ethics committee’ has been formed at the hospital to look into various aspects.
