He attributes his survival to God’s grace and describes his wife as the saviour.
He belongs to a rare breed of long-term kidney transplant survivors who received the organ from an unrelated donor 19 years ago. But in this case, the donor was his wife and luckily the tissues matched.
Meet N. Manoharan (57), Chief Manager, SBI, Old Malakpet Branch. Narrating how he got a new lease of life in 1994 when he underwent the transplantation after both his kidneys failed, he got the shock of his life when the problem was diagnosed.
For two years prior to the transplantation, he had marginal diabetes and hypertension but he tended to neglect it. Since undergoing the transplant at Apollo Hospitals, which was performed by transplant surgeon S. Saharia and his team, Dr. Manoharan has been on immuno-suppressants but continues to lead a normal and active life.
For the past many years, he and his wife have been counselling people from different walks of life, including students on the need to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Terming it is as a “very rare case”, Dr. Saharia, who is now with KIMS, said that normally the body tends to reject the kidney given by an unrelated donor.
