HC notices to govt,hospitals over kidney patient's plea

The High Court of Karnataka issued emergent notices to the chief secretary, commissioner of health and family welfare services and chairman of health and authorisation committee for transplantation of human organs along with five city-based hospitals over a plea filed by a city-based software engineer.

Justice B Veerappa was hearing the petition filed by 26-year-old Mohammed Zaid, who is in urgent need of a kidney transplant and Munsoor Ahmed, a close family friend of Zaid, who is willing to donate his kidney to Zaid.

The court asked the petitioner to submit his application to the transplantation committee by Tuesday.

The bench observed that it is a matter of one’s life and asked the authorities to take immediate action.

The government counsel submitted that they would do the needful after receiving the application.

Zaid has contended that the hospitals are refusing to take any steps to enable the petitioner to undergo the kidney transplantation by citing stringent norms and insisting on a court order directing for such a transplant.

The petitioner was born with a single left kidney and also suffered from a chronic kidney disease.

His mother donated him a kidney in 2013. However, the transplanted kidney functioned well only for three and a half years.

It failed due to the onset of another renal disease.

His immediate family members were unable to donate their kidney due to lifestyle diseases. It was then Ahmed came forward to donate his kidney. Ahmed is known to Zaid’s family since the last 10 years and he frequently visits them.

The petitioners have thus moved the court seeking directions to hospitals to conduct a kidney transplant at the earliest.

The petitioners have also sought for directions to the state government, health and family welfare services and authorisation committee for transplantation of human organs to give the necessary clearances to enable Zaid to receive the kidney from Ahmed through a transplant done outside Karnataka.