KOCHI: It was an emotional moment when a blood cancer patient from Kozhikode, who survived with the stem cells donated by a businessmen based in Ahmedabad, met his benefactor for the first time in Kochi on Friday. Mr K.V. Sivaramakrishnan, the survivor, had undergone bone marrow transplant at Amrita Hospital here in 2014 with the blood stem cells donated by Mr Pravin Kumar Patel from Gujarat.
As per international registry protocol, the identity of the donor and the receiver has to be kept anonymous for a year. As Mr Sivaramakrishnan expressed his desire to meet the donor, DATRI, a non-profit blood stem cell donors’ registry based in Chennai, organised the event at a hotel in Kochi, which turned out to be the first of its kind in Kerala.
It was in January 2014 that Mr Sivaramakrishnan was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a type of blood cancer. Though doctors advised him to go for a bone marrow transplant, they failed to find a suitable match from their family. Later, the family approached DATRI and Mr. Patel, who had registered as a donor in 2012, was found to be a match.
He came all the way from Ahmedabad to donate his stem cells to a person whom he had never known or met. The transplant was done in July 2014. “Once I got convinced, I grabbed the God-given opportunity to save a life,” said Mr. Patel. Mr Sivaramkrishnan, who came along with his family for the event, wept when he met his saviour and couldn’t say a word. Dr. Neeraj Sidharthan, oncologist, Amrita Institute of Medical Science, Dr Veena Shenoy, department of blood transfusion medicine, AIMS, and members of Blood Donors Kerala also attended the event.
