Ahmedabad: Man fights Covid-19, gets another kidney transplant

AHMEDABAD: Rajendra Patel, 59, a resident of Sabarmati, was approaching a private hospital for his dialysis in September last year when he collapsed on the way. His spit contained blood as his mouth started to develop froth. He was diagnosed with Covid-19. The infection was severe, and he had to stay in the ICU for multiple days, as his CT score was 30/40.

Dr Manoj Gumber, a city-based nephrologist and transplant physician, said that Patel had earlier undergone renal transplant where his sister was a donor. “Upon inspection, we realized that he would need a second transplant. His wife became the donor and we performed the transplant in November,” he said. “While second transplant is not rare, this case was important as it was a transplant in a patient with a history of severe Covid-19 infection, cardiac arrest, type 2 diabetes and hypertension.”

For kidney diseases patients, Covid-19 came as a major challenge with high mortality rate associated with transplant and on dialysis patients. Dr Vineet Mishra, director of city-based IKDRC, said that another set of challenges was existing patients testing Covid-19 positive.

“We recorded dips in almost all categories, but not in the patients undergoing hemodialysis – they needed the procedure to stay alive. Thus, we not only started a new section for treating the positive patients with separate machines and staff, but also took over facilities of some existing hospitals so that the patients don’t have to come to a central location,” he said.

Do recovered Covid-19 patients report of kidney diseases? Dr Umesh Godhani, a city-based nephrologist, said that the effects are seen in some patients. “If a person is already a kidney patient, the issue might aggravate, but if there’s no history of the disease, the impact is not very adverse,” he said.