A four-year Bangladeshi boy recently underwent a successful kidney transplant at the Apollo Hospital, Colombo after unsuccessful attempts in Bahrain and the UK, the hospital company said this week.

“The boy’s uncle who came forward to donate his kidney was unable to do so, as the family was told that the facility in Bahrain (where the family resided) was not competent enough to do a Pediatric kidney transplant. Subsequently they struggled to find a hospital at short notice in the UK and other European countries, where costs were beyond their budget. The mother, a Sri Lankan was pleasantly surprised to find that after searching all around the world they were able to do the procedure right here at Apollo Hospitals Colombo, in Sri Lanka,” the company said in a press release, celebrating its 6th year anniversary.

Dr B. Verma the Urologist and Kidney Transplant Surgeon, for Salmon said, “We have proved that we can perform a very complex surgery.” Dr. Surjit Somiah, Nephrologist, said they were fully prepared to do the surgery. “We were able to put the 4-year-old child on dialysis in the lead up to the surgery and ensured that both patients were fully prepared for their surgeries.”

Apollo, owned by Lanka Hospitals Corporation, which completed six years on June 7, says there have been many positive changes in the recent past. It said its laboratory services, diagnostics and health care packages are of world class standard.

The laboratory facilities execute thousands of medical investigations with accurate and reliable reporting systems while the hospital has ‘the finest foreign specialist doctors serving you 24 hours a day in addition to the very best local doctors of all specialties for consultation at Apollo.” Apollo, together with Lanka Bell, has provided free life saving heart surgery for poor children who cannot afford private medical care or wait in long lists hoping for surgery in a government hospital due to their life threatening condition.

“We have performed many heart surgeries in the past, either totally free of cost or managing only with the funds given to them by the President Fund, which covers only one third of the cost of the surgery. The five month old baby Nilpun Dilanka of Nochchiyagama Anuradhapura and the 9 month old baby Pabasari Rathnayake of Veyangoda, became the two lucky babies who qualified for free heart surgery under the Centre of Excellence for Cardiology at Apollo during the month of May,” the statement said.

The hospital said it is elevating two departments - Renal Science and the Fertility Centre – to Centres of Excellence in the very near future. The Department of Renal Science has successfully completed 60 kidney transplants.