BENGALURU: The health and family welfare department has issued notice to
Sapthagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre
where two cadaveric kidneys were wasted recently.
The notice — which follows a March 25 TOI report titled ‘Brain-dead donor’s kidneys go waste, patient blames spike in hospital cost’ — states that the hospital had “not informed Jeevasarthakathe, the cadaver organ transplant unit of the state government, about the kidneys not being transplanted after the same was allocated through the proper channel”.
This indicates the issue would have gone unnoticed if TOI had not reported on it. On Sunday, health commissioner D Randeep tweeted the notice. “Based on the news article published in the
Times of India
, the dean & director of
Sapthagiri Institute of Medical Sciences
has been summoned to appear before the state appropriate authority commissioner,” his tweet read.
The intended recipient, Venkatesh HG, 59, was scheduled to undergo dual kidney transplant at the hospital on March 23. Although his relatives were initially asked to come with Rs 2.5 lakh, they were told to pay Rs 4.5 lakh for the procedure, not including hospitalisation and medicine charges.
The patient blamed the alleged spike in hospital cost for the kidneys not being utilised even as he was waiting for the procedure to begin at the operation theatre. As no transplant took place and the kidneys went to waste, the hospital told TOI the patient’s family had withdrawn consent stating that the donor’s kidneys were found to have borderline issues.
This was rubbished by the family members, who said they were fully aware of the condition of the donor’s kidneys and the issue was about the sudden spike in cost.
The dean and director of the hospital has to appear before the commissionerate within three days.
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