A 52-year-old man from the city is among half a dozen people in the country with four kidneys within, courtesy three kidney transplants he has undergone.
Doctors at Gleneagles Global Hospitals presented the case of Surinder Kumar Sahoo, an employee of the National Minerals Development Corporation (NMDC) who underwent a transplant at their hospital in 2013. The surgery was Mr. Sahoo’s third procedure in the last two-and-half decades.
“His first two transplants had failed, necessitating a third transplant. It was a complicated surgery as there was little space to place an additional kidney,” said G. Sridhar, chief nephrologist, who supervised the five-hour surgery.
Non-functional kidneys
Dr. Sridhar said Mr. Sahoo now has his own two kidneys, which failed and necessitated a transplant in 1991, and one kidney that was transplanted later, apart from the latest transplant which is the only functional organ. The other three kidneys are non-functional but were left in place as is the practice, given that removing kidneys complicates surgeries.
According to Dr. Sridhar, there have been only around five cases of an individual undergoing three transplants documented in India’s medical literature.
