Bone marrow transplant surgery performed by Manipal Hospital free of cost under Chief Minister’s Relief Fund
Vijayawada: Manipal Hospital, Vijayawada has successfully completed a first-of-its-kind Haploidentical Bone Marrow Transplant in a 20-year-old B.Com student Koya Eswar Sai Ganesh. In this procedure, the doctors take a half-matched human leukocyte antigen (HLA) from a parent or a sibling instead of a fully matched HLA from a family donor. By doing this, Manipal Hospital becomes the first hospital to perform this transplant in the divided state of Andhra Pradesh.
Speaking about the transplant, Dr. Madhav Danthala – Consultant Hemato Oncology & BMT, said, “The patient was diagnosed with T-lymphoblastic Lymphoma in 2016. The procedure for the treatment lasts for close to two and a half years which is a mandatory protocol. But this condition relapsed in the patient in 2019, six months after completion of primary therapy, which is not uncommon. The patient got admitted to the hospital on 20thJanuary 2021 where he underwent salvage chemotherapy to get the disease under control and responded well to the procedure. Once we got the disease under control, we performed a Haploidentical (half-matched) Stem Cell Transplant so that the disease doesn’t relapse again in the patient. For this treatment, the patient received the stem cells from his father Mr. Koya Srinivasa Rao.”
Adding to this, Dr. Sudhakar Kantipudi, Hospital Director, Manipal Hospital, said, “It’s been a little over 100 days since the patient was first admitted and he has been under our constant care and observation since then. The available data shows that the fatality rate is as high as 48% in this particular surgery and is as high as 25% inside the first month. I sincerely appreciate Dr.G. Krishna Reddy, Consultant Medical Oncologist and Transplant Physician, Dr.Madhav Danthala and the team of doctors along with the staff for successfully performing the transplant and making sure that the patient is recovering safely.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our honourable Chief Minister Sri. Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy garu and the Government of Andhra Pradesh for supporting many patients like Sai Ganesh through the CM’s Relief Fund so that the financial ability of the patient would be the least of the concerns during such trying times. Treating cancer patients in these troubled tomes along with the dreaded covid patients is definitely a big challenge for the hospital. Being a super speciality hospital, it is our duty to attend to all kinds of patient’s problems along with the COVID patients. I would like to thank the doctors and the staff for making sure that all the COVID safety protocols are in place and, a safe and secure environment created for treatments of both COVID and non-COVID patients.”
Thanking the hospital, Mr. Koya Srinivas Rao said, “I would like to thank the hospital for treating my son and nurturing him back to being healthy. We initially thought of going to Hyderabad for the treatment but then learned that Manipal Hospital provides the same treatment right here in Vijayawada and there was no need for us to travel to Hyderabad to get it done. The hospital took constant care of my son and made sure that all our concerns are addressed. Being a daily wage labourer, it is very difficult for us to afford such rare surgeries but we were able to get the treatment free of cost with the support of CM’s Relief Fund. I would like to thank our beloved Chief Minister for making sure that the entire cost of stem cell transplant is covered by the Government of Andhra Pradesh.”
The patient has been discharged during the first week of April 2021 and will be under constant monitoring of the doctors at least for the next year as a standard protocol.
