Sion hospital to open new bone marrow transplant unit

Mumbai: Sion hospital will finally start its much awaited eight-bed paediatric bone marrow transplant (BMT) unit by March. Construction began last year, with Rs 20 crore being raised through donated funds.The unit will function out of Chota Sion Hospital in Dharavi. Doctors from the hospital said that while it was the first public health facility in the city to start BMTs, it so far functioned on a single bed. A senior paediatrician from the hospital could not recall a single moment when the bed was not occupied. "We performed more than 30 BMTs last year." There is a three-year-old with a rare genetic disorder admitted at the moment. He would be the last single-bed patient. "By the time he is discharged, the new unit will be up and running," said the paediatrician. BMT replaces damaged or diseased bone marrow with healthy stem cells, which can come from the patient (autologous transplant) or a donor (allogeneic transplant). In private hospitals, allogeneic transplants cost between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 30 lakh, while autologous transplants range from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. Public facilities offer BMT free or at minimal administrative costs in some cases. TNN