23-year-old undergoes a rare pancreas-kidney transplant

This Bakrid will be very special for the family of 23-year-old Shakeer D., who underwent a simultaneous deceased donor pancreas-kidney transplant five weeks ago. He will enjoy the festival by relishing seviyan (a dish made of sweet vermicelli) after a gap of 11 years.

Shakeer, who had been suffering from Type 1 diabetes requiring insulin since the age of 12, had developed diabetic retinopathy and nephropathy as well as end stage kidney failure over the past two years and was on dialysis thrice a week.

His aged parents, Bibijan and Bashu, and brother Basheer, were finding it increasingly difficult to manage as their ailing son required repeated admissions following infections. So, they registered his name for a renal transplant with the Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka for Transplantation (ZCCK).

However, on further assessment, Shakeer’s nephrologist, Anil Kumar in BGS Global Hospitals, observed that a combined pancreas and kidney transplant would be the best for him, especially because of his poor diabetic control.

A combined pancreas-kidney transplant is a complex procedure and the surgical risks are higher than a kidney transplant alone. A team of doctors from the hospital comprising organ transplant surgeons — Rajeev Lochan, Mathew Jacob and Sonal Asthana — apart from Dr. Anil Kumar had extensive discussions with the family about his condition and the surgical procedure.

Explaining the procedure, Dr. Asthana said: “We did not remove any diseased organs from the body. The new kidney was placed on the lower left side of the abdomen and connected to the nearby blood vessels and the bladder. The ureter was attached to the bladder. The pancreas was connected to the blood vessels on the lower right side of the abdomen and the organs started working soon after the surgery and the patient did not require insulin.”

The new kidney was placed on the lower left side of the abdomen and connected to the nearby blood vessels and the bladder. The ureter was attached to the bladder. The pancreas was connected to the blood vessels on the lower right side of the abdomen and the organs started working soon after the surgery.

Sonal Asthana

Organ transplant surgeon