Bengaluru: 64-year-old woman donates kidney to grandson

In a rare medical feat, a 64-year-old grandmother donated her kidney to save her five-year-old grandson at Fortis Hospitals, Bengaluru. Doctors used robotic surgery to overcome size and medical challenges, making it one of India’s youngest grandmother-to-grandson kidney transplants

Bengaluru: A rare and life-saving kidney transplant was performed on a five-year-old boy in Bengaluru, with his 64-year-old grandmother stepping in as the donor, doctors at Fortis Hospitals said on Monday.

According to Dr Mohan Keshavamurthy, Principal Director of Urology, Uro-Oncology, Uro-Gynaecology, Andrology, Kidney Transplant, and Robotic Surgery at Fortis Hospitals, who led the procedure, this is possibly the youngest reported case of a grandmother-to-grandson kidney transplant in India.

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“Transplanting a much older person’s kidney into a small child presents unique challenges such as size disparity and heightened immune response in paediatric patients, which increases the risk of graft rejection,” he said.

Dr Karthik Rao, Additional Director of Urology at Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road, said very few centres worldwide attempt kidney transplants on paediatric patients with neurogenic bladder, as the procedure requires highly complex urinary tract reconstruction before the transplant.

He credited the advanced Da Vinci Xi Robot for making the minimally invasive surgery possible. The operation involved accommodating an adult kidney in a child’s body, overcoming vessel size mismatches, and creating a urinary diversion, the hospital said in a press release.

The patient, five-year-old Shreyas, one of identical twin boys, had been suffering from chronic kidney disease. His condition was further complicated by multiple urological surgeries, seizure disorder, and a non-functional bladder, Dr Keshavamurthy said.

With his health rapidly deteriorating, doctors initiated peritoneal dialysis six weeks before the surgery. This supported kidney function and also helped gradually expand his abdominal cavity to accommodate the adult-sized donor kidney.

Shreyas’s grandmother, Meena, said she decided to donate her kidney after watching him suffer. “It was heartbreaking to see my little grandson go through so much pain at such a young age with regular dialysis and frequent hospital visits. No child should have to endure that,” she added.