News
Kidney issue: Indian ‘donor’ died of heart attack
View(s):Top Sri Lankan health officials visited two private hospitals this week on a fact-finding mission over allegations of a kidney racket involving Indian patients just as local authorities revealed that an Indian youth died of a heart attack soon after admission to the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL). NHSL’s Deputy Director Dr. Cyril de Silva told the Sunday Times that a 24-year-old Indian by the name of Dinesh was brought in a “state of collapse” to the NHSL’s Outpatients Department and then rushed to the Emergency Treatment Unit around 4.20 p.m. on March 28.
“He was resuscitated but died soon after at around 4.40 p.m.,” said Dr. de Silva. As required for all deaths within 24 hours of admission to hospital, an inquest was held and the post-mortem found that he had died of ischaemic heart disease which had resulted in coronary thrombosis (heart attack). Asked whether this death was the one reported by Indian media and linked to the kidney racket and whether his kidneys were intact, he said, “We are unaware of the link and the post-mortem findings revealed that he had both kidneys”.
Earlier media reports had indicated that the man had died at a private hospital in a ‘kidneys for sale’ racket.The fact-finding mission from the Health Ministry visited Hemas Hospital at Talawathugoda on Wednesday and Western Infirmary (Pvt) Ltd., at Borella on Thursday, and held discussions with the authorities. The two-member team comprises the Health Ministry’s Private Health Sector Development Director Dr. Kanthi Ariyaratne and Deputy Director Dr. A.I. Jagoda
“We asked a series of questions from them,” said Dr. Ariyaratne adding that they are hoping to visit Nawaloka Hospital on May 21 and Lanka Hospital on May 22 as part of the information-gathering mission on the process of transplantations followed by these hospitals. A visit to the Kandy Nursing Home is due the week after that.
The Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka, meanwhile, stated that it is awaiting details with regard to the kidney issue. “We are still awaiting details with regard to this matter from our headquarters in New Delhi,” First Secretary (Press and Information), Esha Sarivastava told the Sunday Times, when asked, on Thursday.
Sri Lanka burst into the spotlight after the Indian media highlighted an alleged ‘kidneys for sale’ racket reporting how three ‘agents’ had been arrested in Hyderabad after the death of an Indian, Dinesh Kumar Maroo, in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s Private Hospitals Association sprang to the defence of its members. The Association, charging that the Indian media has been “sensationalizing an alleged kidney donor sale by agents in both India and Sri Lanka and that donors are being enticed and paid by agents who charge excessively from recipients and give a pittance to the donor”, said “this claim of collusion by our member hospitals, Professionals and the Health Ministry” is completely false and baseless.
Strict procedures for kidney transplants done in private hospitals for both local and foreign patients include seeking approval from the Health Ministry for each operation. Furthermore, donors (of kidney) must be either close relatives of the patient under Sri Lankan regulations or donating their organs for altruistic reasons if non-related. Based on the recommendation of the application by the Directorate of Private Health Sector Development, which is followed by Deputy Director-General (Medical Services) 2, Dr. Ananda Gunasekera, scrutinizing it and making his recommendation, the final decision whether to approve or reject would come from the Health Services Director-General Dr. Palitha Mahipala.
Private hospitals are promoting this facility to foreign patients as ‘medical tourism’. Lanka Hospital, Western Infirmary (Pvt) Ltd., Nawaloka Hospital and Hemas Hospital, all based in Colombo, and the Kandy Nursing Home are the private hospitals which have so far been carrying out kidney (renal) transplants on both locals and foreigners. Referring to their visits, Dr. Ariyaratne also said that they may hold discussions with the transplantation teams of each private hospital, after which they hope to prepare a comprehensive report.
Indian media have reported that Ganesh, the brother of Dinesh, had gone to the Indian police, alleging that although Dinesh had come to Colombo on March 23 saying it was for a job, e-mail exchanges indicated that it was to sell his kidney. Dinesh had gone to the beach in Colombo with two other Indians (one who had already allegedly undergone kidney surgery and the other who was to sell his kidney), consumed a lot of liquor and swum in the sea. He had later collapsed and died.
Media reports in India also implicated a Sri Lankan doctor as the kingpin behind the trade-in-kidneys and stated that Dinesh had allegedly been promised Rs. 5 lakhs for his kidney.