KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 9

KIST Hospital today said it had successfully conducted 51 kidney transplantation surgeries till date. The first kidney transplant it performed was on 21 April 2021.

For the last 11 years, KIST Teaching Hospital has been providing hemodialysis to kidney patients in Nepal. It got the transplantation approval from the Ministry of Health and Population's Organ Transplantation Coordination Committee.

In fact, patients from the US, Japan, and Denmark have also gotten their kidneys transplanted from us.

Due to our exceptional kidney transplant services, the trend of going abroad for transplantation has been reduced, read a press release issued by the hospital.

For kidney transplant, it has a multi-disciplinary team of physicians, surgeons, anaesthesia professionals, dentists, cardiologists, pathologists, psychiatrists, physicians, and nurses. 'We have a Dedicated Organ Transplant Department in the hospital with transplant-certified Nephrologist Dr Santosh Kumar Chhetri and transplant-certified surgeon Dr Narayan Kumar Bhusal.

Organ transplantation is complex, along with legalities.

The legal body, Transplantation Approval Committee carries out strong inspection of our human organ transplantation services,' it said. 'If the blood of the family members does not match, then a person from another family is approached, and dialysis is performed. This act is called pair exchange.

KIST has been performing successful pair-exchange and has become the best private teaching college in Nepal,' the release added.

Kidney Transplant is expensive; thus, to ease the financial burden, it has considered various aspects and brought a package of Rs 450,000. Further, there is a separate department to make transplants easy and simple. 'When a patient first comes, we first opt for medical consultation and check the legal aspects.

These consulting sessions can run up to seven sessions.

If everything is good, then kidney transplant is done within 13 days. Those who have received transplants from us are happy with our service as it is easy, fast, satisfying, and less time-consuming. Our transplant coordinators are patient-friendly, regularly follow up with the donor and the receiver and use telemedicine for further consultation,' the hospital said.

Kidney transplantation is emotionally and financially draining for the patient and their family. Thus, to help them, it has been approaching NGOs and leading people to provide financial aid to such patients.

A version of this article appears in the print on November 10, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.