Stem cell donor from Kerala saves B'deshi youth

Kolkata: The city on Tuesday witnessed a momentous occasion when 22-year-old Atanu Kishor, a blood cancer survivor from Bangladesh, met his lifesaver from Kerala who had donated stem cells.

Kishor diagnosed with blood cancer in 2017. He had undergone several rounds of chemotherapy in Bangladesh before finally coming down to Kolkata. Kishor had consulted Dr Reghu KS, a senior consultant at the department of Pediatric Hemato Oncology and Cellular Therapies in Tata Medical Centre, Kolkata.

The doctors extracted the stem cell of the patient's sister but it didn't match Kishor's sample.

"We were lucky to have a match for my son within a year," the survivor's mother, Madhabi Roy, said.

Finally, Kishor found a stem cell donor in his namesake, another Kishor from Kerala following the intervention of a non-profit organisation.

Kerala's Kishor Deb had registered as a potential blood stem cell donor in 2017 and after a year, his donated stem cell proved to be a life-saving match for the Bangladeshi youth.

The stem cell transplant was finally successfully done on the patient in 2018 at the Tata Cancer Centre. As per international guidelines, the identity of the stem cell donor and recipient should be kept anonymous for a period of two years.

Dr Mammen Chandy, Director, Tata Medical Centre and Head of Clinical Hematology said: "Every 5 minutes someone in India is diagnosed with blood cancer and other blood disorders.

"India has one of the highest ratios of donor searches that do not result in transplantation due to lack of a matching donor."