Thirtyfour-year-old Hitesh Sindhwani of New Delhi was a Type-1 diabetic for 22 years, was on dialysis for 18 to 20 months, and awaiting a kidney donor during this long period. But today, he is off insulin and medicine, thanks to an unique simultaneous transplantation surgery performed on him for the first time in Asia with a 'Cadaveric' Pancreas and 'Live' donor kidney, at the Apollo Hospitals in October, 2017.

At a media meet organised by the hospital to announce the rare surgery, a beaming Hitesh said since he was on dialysis his other organs started getting impacted. ''So we took a calculated risk, and thanks to the experts, I am happy that the transplants are successful'', he added.

Talking to reporters here on Thursday, Dr. Anil Vaidya, Multi Visceral Transplant Surgeon at Apollo, said while, most simultaneous Pancreas--Kidney transplants were performed from organs harvested from the same cadaveric donor, this case highlights the need to adapt to other strategies to help patients when the allocation rules for the kidney do not favour diabetics on dialysis.

Stating that Apollo Hospitals in Chennai were the leaders in undertaking Simultaneous Pancreas-Kidney (SPK) transplantation in India and has been doing it for the last two years, he said patients with diabetes and renal failure requiring dialysis receive organs (pancreas and kidney) from the same cadaveric donor and were transplanted simultaneously.

''Currently, there are a substantial number of patients waiting for this dual transplant that not only helps them come off dialysis but, more importantly, cures their diabetes that was the root cause of the kidney
failure'', he said.

Hitesh was on such a waitlist for a SPK transplant for over eight months. ''International data suggests that diabetic patients on dialysis are prone to cardiac complications and have a median survival of eight years if they do not get a transplant in time. In addition there is a 8-12 per cent chance of death every year on the waiting list'', Dr. Vaidya said.