On the occasion of Children’s Day, the Kanchi Kamakoti CHILDS Trust Hospital organised a bone marrow transplanted (BMT) children’s meet in the city on Tuesday. The bone marrow transplant unit of the hospital held the meet with donors and recipients of the transplant.
Speaking at the event, Meena Sivasankanran, haematologist at the hospital, said the unit had conducted 25 transplants since it was founded in 2020. All of the children with rare blood disorders had been cured completely.
“As the State government requires 10 successful surgeries to give funding, philanthropists and crowdfunding helped patients in getting the necessary treatment. A success rate of about 85% has been recorded,” she said.
Pointing out that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme and the Telangana Arogya Shree Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme have benefitted the patients, she said a major challenge had been finding the funds for children with primary immunodeficiency to fight against life threatening infections, especially for those ineligible for healthcare schemes.
Deenadayalan, a haematologist at the hospital, also stated that beyond blood cancer, bone marrow transplant could also fight against rare blood disorders. “Only in 25% of the cases can a full match be found in a family donor, the rest are under unrelated donor transplants, with which we have found remarkable success,” he said.
The hospital plans to expand to a three-bedded unit to conduct more transplants, since it is currently a single-bed unit capable of executing only two transplants a month.
