6-yr-old bone marrow cell recipient meets donor

Naval Chaudary, a 28-year-old professional, met Fateh Singh, the 6-year-old recipient of his bone marrow cells, in an emotional event on Thursday.

Datri, a non-profit organisation working on adult unrelated blood stem cell donors registry, had organised the meet. According to the registry protocol, the identity of donors and recipients is kept anonymous for a year. With the consent of both the parties (donor and recipient), Datri facilitated the meeting between the two along with members of their families.

Dr Sunil Bhat, paediatric-haemato-oncologist at Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer Centre, who carried out the transplant in May 2016, said: “We have a number of patients suffering from fatal blood disorders like blood cancer and thalassemia among others for which the last resort is blood stem cell transplant. For many years, there was no hope for such patients. But now, with registries like Datri, there is hope for patients.”

Fateh was diagnosed with thalassemia major at the age of one-and-a-half years. But due to physical complications, blood transfusions were not a possibility for him. He required a blood stem cell transplant. Naval, who had registered with Datri in 2015 at a camp held at his workplace, was found to be a match and was immediately contacted.

A beaming Naval reminisced: “I was a bit hesitant initially but then I researched about the procedure and Dr Bhat counselled me. I realised that saving a life is more important than some minor discomfort I had have to go through during the procedure. And meeting Fateh is an emotional experience I cannot put in words.” Raghu Rajagopal, CEO and co-founder of Datri said praised Naval for saving a life.