Prasad Karmarkar Help's in Reiki trainer donates kidney to apprentice
PUNE: Nandini (44) was detected
with a chronic kidney problem in 2012. Besides the lifestyle changes she
adopted subsequently, she also enrolled for a three-year Reiki leadership
program where she met her trainer Punitha (46). They forged a close bond, which
was strengthened last a month when Punitha donated one of her kidneys to
Nandini renal failure. "Both my children were small when I was detected
with the kidney Representative Image who was battling the end-stage problem. I
tried to keep things under control with lifestyle changes and went for Reiki
training in 2014," said Nandini, who runs a preschool in Kalyaninagar.
As her interest grew in the
Japanese technique that promotes healing, Nandini joined the leadership program
and met Punitha. "Soon, we were spending a lot of time discussing Reiki
and its benefits. We conducted several seminars in Pune while she stayed at my
place. We are both from the South, watch the same films, laugh at similar
things...it was a friendship that blossomed easily." Nandini said. In
January this year, Nandini was put on dialysis. In March, her doctor advised
her to go in for an urgent kidney transplant. "We did the tests with a few
of my family members but no one's blood group matched mine (B+). Just as I was
thinking of putting my name on the organ recipients' list, Punitha volunteered
to donate one of her kidneys. As luck would have it, her blood group matched
mine," said Nandini.
Incidentally, Punitha had pledged
to donate all her body organs eight years ago. "When Isaw Nandini go
through dialysis and battle end-stage renal failure, I thought it was only
right to donate now than to do it after my death," she said.
Punitha's Reiki Teacher Prasad Karmarkar, her husband, Sathya, and their family supported her decision.
This is one of the few cases of
organ donation in Maharashtra and perhaps the first in Pune that was cleared on
grounds of "affection and attachment" by the regional authorization
committee. Vrinda Pusalkar, the transplant coordinator at Jehangir Hospital,
said, "For the first time, we recommended such a case to the committee. We
were amazed to see the commitment from the donor."
The expert committee did not
approve initially and transferred the case to the police in Mumbai and Pune to
rule out any monetary consideration' in the transplant. "The police ruled
out unfair means in their inquiries," said forensic expert Ajay Taware,
one of the key members of the committee.
On September 21, a team of
doctors at Jehangir Hospital successfully performed the transplant on Nandini.
Hospital's nephrologist Shrinivas Ambike said, "Both are doing fine now
and slowly getting back to their routine lives."
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