SINGAPORE, Feb 24 (Bernama) -- A 33-year-old woman died shortly after one of her kidneys was removed and donated to her ailing husband last week, the Straits Times reported.
Her husband, 35, who has been on dialysis with kidney failure for several years, survived the Feb 16 operation and will soon be discharged from the National University Hospital, a report in the newspaper said.
The couple have three children, aged 10, nine and two.
The Straits Times said the death was the first in almost 30 years of kidney transplants from living donors in Singapore.
"I'm deeply saddened by this tragic death," Senior Minister of State for Health Balaji Sadasivan said.
"This is a setback...we'll have to wait and see why the patient died and see what we have to do to ensure this doesn't happen again," he said.
According to the newspaper, a post-mortem was carried out and the case was now with the Coroner's Court.
The report said the hospital was also conducting an internal investigation into the death.
It said Singapore first carried out living-related kidney transplants in 1976 and had done over 400 to date.
Last year, 52 patients received a kidney from a family member, while 32 got them from dead donors, the newspaper said. The operation is considered very safe for both donor and recipient, with one death out of 3,000 kindey donors worldwide.
The average waiting time in Singapore for a kidney transplant from someone who has recently died is seven years.
-- BERNAMA
No comments:
Post a Comment