V. Jayalakshmi, a 47-year-old who underwent a kidney transplant at the Government Stanley Hospital on Tuesday, died on Saturday. She was one of 16 patients (four have since died) diagnosed with Hepatitis C after undergoing dialysis at the hospital in 2014.
Of the four who died, two had undergone transplants at the hospital, while two others died before the transplants.
A senior hospital official said that none of these deaths were due to Hepatitis C.
“In Jayalakshmi’s case, it was due to antibody mediated rejection — an immunological problem — which is a rare occurrence. Success rates in kidney transplants are usually very high. The hospital has completed 750 transplants,” he said.
He added that the other two deaths — S. Baskaran in April 2015 was due to a sudden cardiac arrest and that of V. Maruthai two months ago was due to a lung infection and pneumonia. “We want to complete the transplants in the other patients,” he said.
However, some of the remaining patients and their families are worried.
“Everyone is anxious now. Her surgery seemed to have taken place in a hurry. She was a very active person. She was a government school teacher, and would come for dialysis twice a week and continued to teach. We are all in shock. We are now thinking of seeking treatment elsewhere,” said the family member of a patient.
Another family member said none of them wanted to go ahead with the transplants now. “We want to wait for the viral loads to come down and then possibly ask for a cadaver donor, not a live donor surgery,” she said.
‘Unwilling private hospitals’
She said that they would have sought private treatment, if it were possible, but that several private hospitals they had approached were unwilling to treat them, even for dialysis, let alone a transplant.
“They all say that we should continue at this hospital only. They are worried in case there is a problem,” she said.
Some of the patients and their families have now spent close to three years at the hospital.
