DTMT Network

Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals and Datri, India’s largest blood stem registry, have come together to ensure the availability of blood donors to recipients who direly need bone marrow transplants for survival.

On the occasion of World Marrow Donors’ Day, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in association with Datri has launched an upgraded Centre for Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy in its premises.

A bone marrow transplant is a clinical procedure that replaces an unhealthy bone marrow with healthy cells.

It is administered to patients suffering from certain types of blood disorders, such as leukemia, myeloma, lymphoma, transfusion-dependent thalassemia, sickle cell disease, and other serious blood-related immune system disorders.

As patients suffering from either of these diseases are immunocompromised, the pandemic had a huge impact on their timely treatment.

Apollo hospital has said that the new state of art centre has been strategically conceptualized to manage the required long stay of such patients in the hospital.

Similarly, the BMT follow-up OPD has been set up close to the Centre for being able to prevent these immunocompromised patients from mixing with other patients and reducing their risk of catching secondary infections.

This state of art conceptualization behind forming this centre makes it one of the most advanced and patient-friendly BMT centers’ across North India.

Dr. Gaurav Kharya, Clinical Lead at Centre for BMT & CT, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi said, “For a long time, patients from not only across the country but from all over the world were coming to Indraprastha Apollo hospitals to get treated for various life-limiting or life-threatening diseases related to blood.”

Dr. Gaurav added that the common symptoms of these patients included anemia, fever, persistent jaundice, very low levels of energy, frequent blood transfusions, bleeding manifestations, increased risk of infections, and pain to name a few.

“The only curative treatment for the majority of these disorders is by offering a Bone Marrow Transplant. For any patient to undergo a BMT, preferably a 10/10 HLA matched donor is required, which sometimes can be siblings, rarely parents or an unrelated donor,” he added.

 Sumati Misra, Head - Counseling & Transplant Centre Management, DATRI said, “While we celebrate WMDD and the lives gifted, we need to also think about the patients still waiting for a match. Even though we have 4.6 lakh registered donors in a country like India, we are less than 1% of the population.”

“Each of us needs to help spread awareness and counsel, and support matched donors. Days like today are a celebration as a survivor meets their donor. There are miles to go and many mountains to climb,” Misra said.

“DATRI’s mission is to give each patient a 2nd chance at life. Ethnicity matters, so each new donor registered is a ray of hope for patients on the waiting list,” she added.