64-year-old woman donates kidney to grandson in Bengaluru

A rare and life-saving kidney transplant was performed on a five-year-old boy in Bengaluru, with his 64-year-old grandmother stepping in as the donor, doctors at Fortis Hospitals said on Monday.

According to Dr Mohan Keshavamurthy, Principal Director of Urology, Uro-Oncology, Uro-Gynaecology, Andrology, Kidney Transplant, and Robotic Surgery at Fortis Hospitals, who led the procedure, this is possibly the youngest reported case of a grandmother-to-grandson kidney transplant in



India.

“Transplanting a much older person’s kidney into a small child presents unique challenges such as size disparity and heightened immune response in paediatric patients, which increases the risk of graft rejection,” he said.

Dr Karthik Rao, Additional Director of Urology at Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road, said very few centres worldwide attempt kidney transplants on paediatric patients with neurogenic bladder, as the procedure requires highly complex urinary tract reconstruction before the transplant.