Press Coverage

• Brother receives life-saving stem cell transplant from own sister
• Avinash Kumar Singh carried out successful transplant, thereby providing a new lease of life to the patient

Patna, 03 October 2017: A sister saved the life of her 25-year-old brother (an engineer by profession) suffering from blood cancer, by donating her stem cells to him at PARAS HMRI Hospital, Rajabazaar, Patna. It is for the first time in the history of Bihar-Jharkhand that an allogeneic transplant has been successfully carried out. The transplant is considered to be pretty complex since there are chances that it may lead to severe infection or mucositis. Hence such patients are treated in a BMT setup.

Dr. Avinash Kumar Singh, who undertook the transplant, said, “Buxar’s 25 yr engineer suffered from AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia) blood cancer. He was lucky since his sister donated her stem cells for transplant. It acts as a panacea to such a fatal disease. The patient was admitted to the BMT unit of PARAS Cancer Centre for the first three weeks. Subsequently, his sister’s stem cells were transfused to brother. Fortunately, the patient has been recovered fast and cancer has been uprooted.”

“However it is important for people to know that the procedure causes no major harm and hence, they need not be scared of it. The donor’s life is not affected in any manner, nor does he/she contract any disease.” He added how the sister performed a commendable job and set an example for many others to follow. The donor, on the other hand, affirmed that she did not face any difficulty during the transplant or even after. Dr. Singh said, “Bone marrow transplant is the best solution to all blood-related diseases, such as blood cancer, aplastic anemia, thalassemia & MDS

Bone marrow transplants are carried out in two ways:

1)    Autologous- Stem cells are taken from the patient

2)    Allogeneic- Siblings provide stem cells

Shatrughan Sinha, BJP MP and veteran actor said, “There is no other hospital in Patna to the likes of PARAS HMRI Hospital. Shri Sinha had openly applauded PARAS HMRI’s contributions in the field of healthcare in Bihar and Jharkhand during a recent ceremony at AIIMS.