These Hindu, Muslim families swapped kidneys, saved lives, broke stereotypes

By Manjeet Sehgal

Breaking religious barriers, a Hindu man donated his kidney to a Kashmiri Muslim, whose wife later donated her kidney to the Hindu donor’s wife.

Abdul Aziz Nazar, a carpenter by profession and aged 53, hails from Kareri village of Baramulla district. Belonging to a poor family, Abdul had lost both the kidneys due to urolithiasis (kidney stones) and was searching for a donor.

Nazar had registered his name on an app that matched donors and receivers.

Similarly, Sujit Kumar Singh,46, from Bihar was also searching for a kidney for his wife Manjula, 42, who was a patient of glomerulonephritis (a kidney disease) and had both her kidneys affected.

Sujit Kumar Singh had also registered his wife’s name on the app.
Interestingly, while Sujit’s kidney matched with Abdul Aziz Nazar, his wife Manjula Kumari’s blood group matched with Abdul’s wife Shazia (50).

Doctors of a Mohali, Punjab-based private hospital suggested the kidney swap after the medical parameters of all four — Abdul Aziz Nazar, Shazia, Sujit Kumar Singh, and Manjula — perfectly matched with each other.

Dr. Priyadarshi Ranjan who conducted all the four surgeries in a single day said this kidney transplant was very tricky not because of religion but because of the differences in inter-state organ transplant rules.

“While both the donors and recipients belong to different states the surgeries were conducted in a third state.

“I faced three difficulties, namely the medical parameter, secondly the interstate organ transplant rules and thirdly religion, which however was not an issue at all as medical science believes in humanity,” Dr. Ranjan said.

All the four surgeries were conducted on December 3, 2018.

Abdul Aziz Nazar said it was not religion but the life which matters. “I feel very happy that the kidney belongs to a Hindu,” he said.

Nazar, however, said that he did not get any financial help from state and the central government. He has spent over Rs 7 lakh to get the kidney transplant done.

Both Sujit Kumar Singh and his wife Manjula Kumari are also happy after surgery.

“We were not getting the right kidney. I had never thought that a Muslim woman’s organ will save my wife’s life,” Singh said.

Link: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/hindu-muslim-kidney-transplant-1537665-2019-05-29