Bhaktapur, January 24

Human Organ Transplant Centre Bhaktapur is all set to expand its services with the launching of liver and lungs transplant and heart surgery units.

Currently, the centre provides kidney transplant services.

The centre had made preparations for launching the services following endorsement of the bill designed to carry out amendments to the Human Body Organ Transplant (Regulation and Prohibition) Act, 2055 ( 1988).

At a press meet organised today, Centre Director Dr Pukarchand Shrestha said the centre, which has a successful history of kidney transplants, is also starting liver and lung transplants and heart surgery services in the near future.

The centre has already developed physical infrastructure and technology required for providing the services.

The records at the hospital show that every year some 3,000 people suffer from renal failure and of them, 90 per cent die due to lack of treatment.

The amendment to the Act that allows removal of organs (kidneys, lungs, heart, liver, pancreas, small intestine) from clinically dead people and their transplant to the needy addressed these problems, according to Dr Shrestha.

A clinically dead person can save the life of eight people, he said. The Act has avoided the role of surgeons involved in organ transplants.