Apollo Transplant Programme performs the highest number of organ transplants in India – 534 transplants in less than eight months

Asia’s largest and the most trusted healthcare provider, Apollo Hospitals has performed 534 organ transplants across the nation in less than 8 months in the year 2010. Chairman of the Apollo Hospitals Group, Dr. Prathap C Reddy, today made the formal announcement about this significant achievement.

The statistics portray an alarming need for organ transplant in India. According to the estimated statistics, every 3 minutes a patient is added to the list of patients needing a transplant. More than 200,000 Indians require organ transplantation annually, an estimated 20,000 liver transplants are required per year in India.

Apollo Hospitals conducted the first successful Kidney Transplant in June 1984 in Chennai, and the first successful bone marrow transplant in July 1995 and the first successful Liver transplant in India in November 1998. From then till now we have conducted a total of 6587 transplants (liver, kidney, heart, liver + kidney, bone marrow).

Apollo Transplant Program:

• Apollo Liver Transplant Centers- Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. Bangalore and Hyderabad to be launched in the next 12 months.
• Apollo Kidney Transplant Centers- Ahemdabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Madurai, Mysore, Vizag, Dhaka, Pune, Ranchi Bilaspur and Ludhiana to be launched in the next 12 months.

Figures for 2010:

• Liver Transplants : 134
• Kidney Transplants :398
• Heart Transplants :02
• Bone Marrow :51

“We have always worked towards the cause of spreading awareness about organ donation so that the patients in need would benefit from it. Driven by patients’ needs and expectations Apollo Hospitals started the Apollo centers of transplant in 1984. In a span of 242 days in 2010, 534 organ transplants have been performed averaging more than two transplants a day” said Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group.

By the end of the year Apollo transplant programme will be the busiest transplants programme in the world.

“Apollo Hospitals has 12 centers for kidney transplant across the country and four centers for liver transplant in Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kolkatta. Apollo is planning to establish more kidney and liver centers in the next 12 months. Having established the first successful liver transplant in India we believe we have enough experience to establish liver transplant centers in other locations. This year we have already performed 134 liver transplants” said Dr Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director Apollo Group and Senior Pediatric Gastroenterologist.

Also present at the event were Mr. Ranbir Singh, the 500th case of transplant surgery at Apollo Hospitals and baby Sroy Kim, a 19 month Cambodian child who has successfully undergone a liver transplant at Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi. Sroy is the first child in Cambodia to undergo a liver transplant at Apollo Hospitals after his initial surgery at Singapore. “The doctors at the Apollo Hospital were extremely helpful. I feel much better now and this is all because of the efforts of the Apollo Team.” said Mr. Ranbir Singh.

The Apollo transplant programme is privileged to have some of the best clinicians in the country. Dr Subash Gupta, Senior Consultant Liver Transplant Surgery, Dr S. N. Mehta, Senior Consultant Kidney Transplant Surgery, Dr. Vijaya Rajkumari, Senior Consultant Kidney Transplant Surgery to name a few have given a new lease of life to those suffering with organ failure.

The need of the hour is a proactive attitude towards organ donation. Apollo Hospitals promises to work towards the cause of encouraging organ donation.