A kidney wait since 2024 ends with an Army airlift and a rare double transplant

NEW DELHI: An 18-year-old who had spent nearly two years waiting for a kidney, undergoing dialysis twice a week and with no family donor, received not one but two kidneys from a single brain-dead donor on Monday — after the organs were airlifted from Chandimandir to Delhi. Both kidneys were transplanted into Anil Yadav at Safdarjung Hospital, and he is doing well.The donor, 62-year-old Amar Chand, father of an Air Warrior, had undergone coronary artery bypass graft surgery last year and was on dual antiplatelet medication. He later slipped in his bathroom, suffered a head injury and brain haemorrhage, and was declared brain dead at Command Hospital (Western Command), Chandimandir. His organ donation helped save other lives. His liver was transported to Army Hospital (Research & Referral), Delhi, for transplantation, while both corneas were donated to Command Hospital, Chandimandir.His family’s decision to donate his organs set off a race against time. With Army support, the two kidneys were airlifted to Delhi and taken to Safdarjung Hospital, where doctors transplanted both into Anil, who has chronic renal failure. “This is the first en bloc renal transplant at the hospital, in which both kidneys from a donor with marginal renal function were implanted in a single recipient. With a severe shortage of organs nationwide, accepting marginal kidneys can help expand the donor pool and give more dialysis patients, many of whom wait for years, a chance at transplantation,” said Dr Himanshu, Professor & Academic Head, Department of Nephrology, VMMC & Safdarjung Hospital. “The patient is recovering well, with good renal function and urine output.”“The most difficult part of organ donation is counselling a grieving family to say yes within two hours,” said Col Anurag Garg, Transplant Coordinator and Palliative Physician at CHWC. “I have seen this in the Subedar’s family, a Colonel’s wife’s family and Air Warrior Ranbir’s case.”Anil had been waiting for a transplant since 2024, with no donor available in his family. Until Tuesday, twice-weekly haemodialysis had been part of his routine.For a teenager who had spent nearly two years waiting for a donor, the journey from a brain-dead donor in Chandimandir to a transplant table in Delhi took place in time to give him a chance at life beyond dialysis. Anuja Jaiswal is a Senior Assistant Editor at The Times of India, with an impressive 18-year career in narrative journalism. She specializes in health and heritage reporting, expertly simplifying complex health information to make it engaging and understandable for readers. Her deep dives into heritage topics are well-researched, resulting in captivating narratives that resonate with her audience. Over the years, she has worked in Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh and West UP, gaining diverse on-ground experience that shapes her storytelling.