More trouble lies in store for Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital with the Directorate of Health Services probing two more allegedly illegal kidney donation operations in the hospital. Interestingly, the name of Sunder Singh, the informant who helped bust the racket, has surfaced as a donor of a kidney, wherein the recipient died within a fortnight of the surgery.
In a surgery held in April this year, Singh allegedly submitted documents stating his name as Sundarkumar Roongata to donate a kidney to one Dimple Himmatramka (37) and claimed that the latter was his sister.
“Himmatramka died within a fortnight after the surgery,” a highly placed source from the DHS said.
The surgery was approved by the hospital’s Local Authorization Committee (HLC). Documents obtained by The Asian Age show that Dr Anurag Naik, medical director of the hospital, was the chairperson for the committee and the other members include Dr Suvin Shetty, Dr Veena Sewlikar, two external members — Mrs Sujata Srivastwa, Brinda Ramkrishnan, and Dr Babhulgaonkar, assistant director of health services.
DHS sources reveal that in addition to the medical complications, the donor and the recipient had submitted forged documents. “He submitted his ration card, which shows his date of birth as May 11 1984, but the birth certificate he had submitted mentions it as May 12 1986. His age too is different in two places – 26 in one and 30 in another. Also, the documents submitted had many cancellations and over writings on it. But despite such visible tampering and discrepancies, the doctors went ahead with the surgery,” a source from the DHS said.
The documents show that in addition to Dr Naik, nephrologist Dr Mukesh M. Shette has signed and attested a form, which lists the name, age, address and the relation between the donor and the patient. This document has pictures of Singh and Himmatramka and has been signed by Dr Shette. “Dr Naik has in fact made a handwritten note on the approval document stating that ‘HLA (human leukocyte antigen) does not match’. However legal documents establish a brother-sister relationship,” said a DHS source. The source added that it is surprising that the doctors went ahead with the surgery despite the HLA not being a match.
The second case that the DHS is probing is that of two women, identified as Rasilaben Kathiriya (36) and Harshaben Kevadiya. Kathiriya, a Virar resident, was the recipient of a kidney from Kevadiya, who was shown as her sister in the documents. “Kevadiya was allegedly from Gujarat and donated her kidney to her sister Kathiriya.
The transplant surgery of these two women took place on April 22. While the HLA of the women matches, the documents they have submitted seem forged. We are still investigating these and we suspect that the hospital prepared fake blood reports to go ahead with the transplant,” revealed the DHS source.
When contacted, police sources said that they had submitted all the documents obtained from the hospital to the DHS.
“The hospital authorities gave us records of all the transplants conducted in the hospital over the last three years. We went through these and the suspected illegal cases were submitted to the DHS to be probed further,” said an officer.
The standard procedure Before a kidney transplant, doctors conduct an human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching test to ensure that the organ of the donor is compatible with that of the recipient since a no match can lead to the the recipient’s body generating anti-bodies to attack the new organ.
While there are surgeries where the HLA does not match are performed, they are rare in nature since there is always the risk that the new organ and the surgery may pose a threat to the recipient.
