Do you know that more than 2,00,000 patients receive kidney transplants in India yearly? India holds second place after the United States in terms of kidney transplants. Provided medical personnel, well-equipped hospitals, qualified nursing staff, and easy accessibility to medical visas are several factors that make India bright on the list of medical tourism destinations.

The world’s first successful human kidney transplant was done at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Bombay, India in 1965. It was done on a hypernephroma patient utilizing a cadaver donor.

Kidney Transplantation – An Overview!

A kidney transplant is the transplantation of an organ into a patient suffering from end-stage kidney disease. It is a surgical procedure that requires the replacement of a healthy kidney from an alive or dead donor with a person whose kidney is not working properly.

Health Disorders That May Require Kidney Transplantation

Final-stage kidney disease is the most common reason for kidney transplantation. In this case, the kidney fails to work properly. It loses its ability to function by 90 percent. Kidney transplantation is performed. Some health problems may cause end-stage kidney diseases. It includes:

• Diabetes.
• High blood pressure – chronic, uncontrolled.
• Polycystic kidney disease.
• Chronic Glomerulonephritis – Swelling in the kidney’s filter cells (glomeruli).

Other Urological diseases – When a person is suffering from end-stage kidney disease. They need to remove all the waste in their bloodstream through a filtration process. It is also called dialysis. The purpose of a kidney transplant is to live a long and healthy life.

Kidney Transplant Options: Types Of Kidney Transplant Available

Depending on the source of accessibility of the kidney, there are two main types of kidney transplants:

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

Legal And Ethical Aspects Of Kidney Donation

• When it comes to organ donation and transplantation, the Indian government makes strict rules and if anyone is found to be wrong, they will pay a heavy fine. After the transplantation team estimates a patient’s case and examines his documents, they start treatment. Living donors are categorized as follows:
• The donation of a kidney can be performed by a patient’s relative or related by blood such as parents, siblings, children, grandparents, and grandchildren.
• In this case, if the donor is not related by blood such as a spouse, siblings of the spouse, or parents of the spouse, then it requires authorization from the government certifying that no commercial angle is included during organ donation.
• Whenever a foreigner comes to India for kidney transplantation, they should only bring the donor with them once a senior embassy of their country of origin or the Government of the country with which they are related acknowledges the relationship between them.
• For the moment, Indian legislation also stipulates that kidney transplantation should be performed ethically in India.

Kidney Transplantation: Organ Donation Acceptance Procedure

As a foreigner, you have to bring your donor with you. Although you will have to follow through a legal process to get approval from the Embassy and Government of your country. But in India, a living donor transplant is permitted in two ways: one involving a related individual and the other involving a non-related individual. There is a list of documents that the donor should present to the recipient.

For Related Donor: The documents required for the donor are:

• Medical visas for the donor and recipient.
• Passport photocopy and passport-size photographs will have to be presented by the donor or the recipient.
• NOC from the embassy with all attested documents.
• A family photograph that represents the relationship between the donor and the recipient.
• Birth certificate/school certificate or any government-authorized ID proof showing the parent’s name and the relationship between the donor and the recipient.
• The donor should also present a marriage certificate.
• Bank account statement and ITR for three financial years provided by the donor and recipient.

Patients will be required to present all medical papers from their home countries. In the case of an unrelated donor, the documents will be the same. Though there are some extra documents that are to be attached to this:

• NOC from the donor’s relative suggested no obstructions regarding organ donation.
• Evidence of a health certificate should be submitted along with blood group reports and treatment papers.
• Attestation of family documents by the area head.
• The existence of the donor’s relative before the Authorization Committee meeting is compulsory.

All affidavits containing photographs should be attested by a magistrate. In addition to the above-mentioned documents, the following forms should be filled out: