This story is from September 11, 2018

Kolkata: Woman gets kidney from senior colleague

Kolkata: Woman gets kidney from senior colleague
(From left) Diti's mother Monideepa, surgeon Shibaji Basu, Diti and Marshneil after the surgery
KOLKATA: Some ties go beyond bloodlines. The relation between Marshneil Sinha and Diti Lahiri is the story of one such bond.
For the last five years, Sinha — an IT professional in her thirties — had been fighting a life-threatening kidney condition as she could not get a donor for a transplant. However, luck finally favoured her and a 40-year-old senior colleague, Lahiri, decided to donate a kidney.
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Diti was a project co-ordinator at ITC Infotech in Bangalore, when she first heard of Sinha’s problem.
Sinha had been diagnosed with shrinking kidneys that needed dialysis and, later, replacement. She continued working for some time. But she soon fell too ill to continue office and had to work from her home at Bokaro in Jharkhand, which the management supported. Soon, Lahiri — who hails from Kolkata — got to know that Sinha would not live unless she got a kidney. Since her parents had other health issues, they could not donate. Her sister was about to get married and, hence, was advised against donation. Sinha’s family desperately appealed through the media to look for a donor, but to no avail.
Lahiri was closely following Sinha’s case and sent her medical reports to urologist Shibaji Basu for evaluation. Basu, too, diagnosed that she needed immediate transplant. “I made up my mind to donate one of my kidneys because my mother has been living a healthy life on one kidney for years now. She is more active than most of us. I am single and that perhaps made it easier for me. My parents were surprised initially, but finally got around to support me…” Lahiri smiled.

Lahiri and her mother, Monideepa, a retired teacher of Jewish Girls School, had to go through a nine-month-long process involving affidavits at Alipore police court and depose before first class magistrates that Lahiri is donating her kidney out of sheer goodwill and there is no monetary transaction involved. Lahiri had to go through detailed medical examinations and had to go through video interviews, alongwith Monideepa, at Swasthya Bhaban.
After that a final no-objection certificate was given to Lahiri. Bengal is the only state that allows non-relatives to donate kidneys, but not before the state has verified the intent of the donor. Sinha, too, had to undergo a similar administrative process in Jharkhand before the final nod.
The surgery was finally done on September 3 at Fortis. While Shibaji Basu, with whom Lahiri’s family had been in touch for years, operated on Lahiri, Upal Sengupta performed the surgery for Sinha. While Lahiri has been released and is doing fine, Sinha is due for release on Tuesday from the hospital.
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