Category Archives: SIUT

Gift of Life

Archive Edition, Health, Organ Trade and Donation, Organ Transplant, SIUT

By Zubeida Mustafa

69-27-11-1992Two hundred children in Britain who faced certain death from liver failure are alive today and leading a normal, healthy life. They owe their recovery to the miracle of transplantation: the technology that allows surgeons to graft wholesome organs from one person to another.

Behind every milestone in medical science there is invariably a human story of sustained commitment and caring effort. In the case of these 200 British children the man who has made liver transplantation possible is Sir Roy Calne, a pioneer in the field of transplantology. A professor of surgery in the Cambridge University and president of the. International Transplantation Society, Dr Calne has contributed to the science of transplantation by his research on the immuno-suppressive drugs, without which no organ graft can be successful.

The defence mechanism of the human body normally ensures that it rejects foreign objects, which include organs taken from another person. Hence the use of drugs to suppress the immune reactions but in such measured doses that infections do not kill the patient. Continue reading Gift of Life →

Organ transplantation has come to stay -Dr Adib Rizvi

Archive Edition, Health, Human Rights, Organ Trade and Donation, Organ Transplant, SIUT

By Zubeida Mustafa

68-04-08-1992a
Dr Adib Rizvi

In the early 1970s a magistrate from the interior of Sindh died of kidney failure in Civil Hospital, Karachi. This should normally not have merited a mention, especially twenty years later. Nearly 10,000 people in Pakistan come down with kidney failure every year.

But Mr Shaikh’s death, that was the magistrate’s name, proved to be an event of far-reaching consequences. In those days there were no facilities in Karachi for dialysis (let alone transplantation) — the only process by which the life of a patient of end-stage renal failure can be sustained. Mr Shaikh was sent to London where he was dialysed for a few weeks until his budget was exhausted. He was sent home with the false assurance that he was cured. He returned to Pakistan very pleased with himself looking forward to a new life. He brought as a token of his gratitude a small gift of handkerchiefs for the urologist who had attended to him in Karachi. Continue reading Organ transplantation has come to stay -Dr Adib Rizvi →

Catching it early

Archive Edition, Health, SIUT, Social Issues, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

55-05-06-1991

‘A’ has breast cancer. A few years ago this diagnosis would have amounted to sounding the death knell for her. Not so today. Doctors give ‘A’ an excellent prognosis, the very high rate of mortality from this disease notwithstanding.

‘A’ stands a good chance of survival because her cancer was discovered at a very early stage. In fact, when surgery was performed on her, the tumour in her breast was not even palpable — that is it could not be felt.

Now ‘A”s surgeon, Dr Shaista Khan of the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, is optimistic that the disease has been checked since it was confined to the breast cells and had not spread.

It was a mammogramme (an Xray of the breast) taken during a routine examination that showed up the malignant lesion, making diagnosis possible.

What was extraordinary about ‘A’s’ case was the overly cooperative and understanding approach of her husband, who virtually pushed her into being screened for breast cancer. “Normally not all husbands have that attitude,” says Dr Shaista Khan. Continue reading Catching it early →

Transplantation of kidney: Indian professor’s views

Archive Edition, Development and Poverty, Health, Organ Trade and Donation, Organ Transplant, SIUT, Social Issues

By Our Special Correspondent

KARACHI, March 23: While condemning the unethical practices associated with kidney transplantation from unrelated living donors. Prof Kirpal Singh Chugh made a fervent appeal to the medical profession to spread the message to the public for the need for cadaveric transplantation of organs.

Dr.chughHe was speaking on the “Ethics of Transplantation” at a symposium organised at a local hotel on Friday. Dr Chugh, who is the Professor of Nephrology at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India, was in Karachi to attend the Dow Medical College Annual Symposium on March 20-22. Continue reading Transplantation of kidney: Indian professor’s views →

I was determined to live — and live normally

Archive Edition, Health, Human Rights, Organ Trade and Donation, Organ Transplant, SIUT, Social Issues, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

Dr Rukhsana Parveen is a Senior House Officer in the Nawabshah Civil Hospital. Her job in the 73- bed medical ward is considerably demanding entailing as it does six hours of morning duty every day and four emergency duties a week — twice in the afternoon and twice at night.

For 27-year-old Rukhsana, her work as a physician is most satisfying. She speaks enthusiastically about her profession, narrating animatedly her experiences with her patients. She is proud of her achievements: in the last few weeks she has cured six patients suffering, from the deadly disease Hepatitis-B. Continue reading I was determined to live — and live normally →