Do you know that more than 2,00,000 patients receive kidney transplants in India annually? India stands at the second position after the United States for performing kidney transplants. Experienced medical personnel, well-equipped hospitals, qualified nursing staff, easy availability of medical visas are some factors that make India shine in the list of medical tourism destinations

The first-ever successful human kidney transplant was performed at the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Bombay, India in 1965. It was performed on a hypernephroma patient using a cadaver donor. 

Kidney Transplantation – An Overview!

Kidney transplant is the organ transplant into a patient suffering from end-stage renal disease. It is a surgical process that demands the replacement of a healthy kidney from a living or deceased donor into a person whose kidneys don’t function properly.

Health Disorders That May Require Kidney Transplantation

End-stage renal disease is the most common cause of kidney transplantation when the kidneys lose about 90 percent of their ability to function normally. The health issues responsible for end-stage kidney disease are:

• Diabetes

• High blood pressure – chronic, uncontrolled

• Polycystic kidney disease

• Chronic Glomerulonephritis – inflamed tiny filters in the kidneys (glomeruli)

• Other Urological diseases

When a person suffers from end-stage kidney disease, he/she needs to have waste filtered out of their bloodstream via dialysis or a kidney transplant to live a long, healthy life.

Kidney Transplant Options: Types Of Kidney Transplant Available

Depending on the source of availability of kidney, there are two types of renal transplants:

In India, more than 80 percent of transplants are from living donors.

Legal And Ethical Aspects Of Kidney Donation

When it is about organ donation and transplantation, the Indian government follows strict rules and if anyone, found guilty, has to face a heavy penalty. Once the patient case is evaluated by the transplantation team along with all the legal documents, they proceed with the treatment. Also, living donors are classified as:

• A close relative or related by blood such as parents, siblings, children, grandparents, grandchildren.

• The donor is not related by blood such as a spouse, siblings of the spouse, parents of the spouse, then it requires permission from the government describing that no commercial angle is involved while organ donation.

In case, when a foreigner is coming to India for kidney transplantation, then he/she should bring the donor along only after a senior embassy of their country of origin or the Government of the concerned country approves of the relation between the donor and recipient.

Meanwhile, the Indian legislation also ensures that the kidney transplantation should be ethically performed in India.

Kidney Transplantation: Organ Donation Acceptance Procedure

As a foreigner, you have to bring your donor along. However, you have to undergo a legit process to get approval from the Embassy and Government of your country for the donor. While in India, living donor transplant is acceptable in two forms – related and non-related donor, there is a list of documents the donor and the recipient should bring along.

For Related Donor: The required list of documents are:

• Medical visas by the donor and recipient.

• Passport photocopy and passport size photographs of the donor and the recipient.

• NOC from the embassy with all the documents attested.

• A family photo depicting the relationship between the donor and the recipient.

• Birth certificate/school certificate/any government approved ID proof displaying the parent’s name showing the relationship between the donor and recipient.

• The donor should also bring the marriage certificate if married.

• Bank account statement and ITR for three financial years by the donor and recipient.

• Patients need to bring all the medical papers from their native countries.

In the case of an unrelated donor, the documents are the same. However, there are some additional documents to be attached along:

• NOC from the donor’s relative implying no objection regarding organ donation.

• Proof of unfit related donors should be carried along with their blood group reports and treatment papers.

• Attested recipient’s family tree by the area head.

• The presence of the donor’s relative before the Authorization Committee meeting is mandatory.

• All the affidavits containing photographs and attested by the magistrate.

Also, along with the above-mentioned documents, the following forms must be duly filled: