COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore Government Medical College Hospital (CMCH) has achieved a significant milestone in organ donation and kidney transplantation. It has completed 100 kidney transplant surgeries, a first in the government medical facilities in the west zone of the state.
This feat has been achieved in just six years.
The 100 cases include 55 transplants from brain-dead (deceased/cadaver) donors and 45 from living related family donors (such as parents, siblings, or other close relatives).
Notably, the CMCH has performed a kidney transplant successfully on a 12-year-old boy, sourcing the kidney from a deceased donor from Tiruppur on August 25, 2025.
"It is particularly challenging due to considerations of body size, precise drug dosing, growth impacts, and long-term immunosuppression side effects. Usually, neurologists, urologists, anaesthetists and vascular surgeons are involved in kidney transplant surgeries. However, this case was handled with the support of doctors from paediatric medicine and a paediatric surgeon. It was a tremendous work coordinated by around seven departments and it was a milestone for CMCH in kidney transplant surgeries," said C Amutharajan, Transplant Coordinator and Grief Counsellor in CMCH.
He said that the nephrology department has been performing kidney transplant surgeries since January 2017. "We have been doing the kidney transplant since 2017 sourcing from the living donors. Three years later, in February 2020, the procedure for a kidney transplant through deceased brain-dead donors started. It is being done through the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN). On Saturday the department successfully performed its 100th transplant surgery sourcing the organ from a deceased donor from Salem.
According to CMCH Dean Dr M Geethanjali, CMCH has facilitated organ donations from 25 brain-dead donors so far, resulting in the harvesting and transplantation of 83 organs overall (including kidneys and potentially others like liver, heart, or lungs), among them 38 corneas have been donated from brain-dead donors.
Following Chennai, CMCH has also performed ABO-incompatible kidney transplants (where the donor and recipient have mismatched blood groups, such as A to B or O to A) from living related donors in one case.
This achievement represents a major step forward for the hospital's kidney transplantation programme, highlighting strong organ donation awareness, efficient transplant coordination, advanced immunological expertise, and a dedicated multidisciplinary medical team, said Amutharajan.
He highlighted that kidney transplant surgeries usually cost from Rs 6 lakh to 20 lakh in the private sector depending on demand and health conditions. "However it is done free of cost at CMCH under the Chief Minister's Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS). Hence the number of people approaching the Government Hospital has increased, particularly after Covid-19. At least 10 people visit CMCH in a month with a need of kidney transplant. As the government encourages organ donations and the efforts to honour the donors have made many come forward to donate their organs," Amutharajan told TNIE.