BENGALURU: The first uterus transplant in the state has run into verification troubles with the State Authorisation Committee for Transplantation of Human Organs receiving tampered verification forms from one of the donors. The transplants are supposed to take place at HCG’s Milann Fertility Centre. They have received permission from Indian Council of Medical Research and the State Appropriate Authority for Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues (headed by the Health Commisioner) to conduct two uterus transplants on a ‘research experiment-basis’.
The next step is for the Authorisation Committee (chaired by the director of Institute of Nephro Urology, Victoria Hospital) to get police verification of the donor and recepient, which is the protocol followed with every transplant. A 13-question form is sent to the jurisdictional police, to be either verified by the rank of the SP or Commissioner. While only one transplant case has come to the committee so far, the second case is yet to come. A 45-year-old donor is a local of Pune while the recipient is from Thane. Generally, the committee insists on related donors or family members.
But in this case, the donor is the maternal aunt and the committee has no birth certificates to establish their relationship. Dr M Shivalingaiah, Director, Institute of Nephrourology, told Express, “On July 3, we had sent the forms of the donor to the jurisdictional police. We received a communication from the postal department on July 31 saying that the addressee had refused to receive it. We had sent it in a sealed envelope through speed post.” “A few days later we received the post in a tampered condition with documents missing. We also received a verification form signed by the DCP (the SP or the Commissioner are signing authorities) with whitener on one of the answers.
The answer to the question ‘Is the recipient undergoing transplantation of the uterus for monetary or other gain?’ is incomprehensible. We have brought it to the notice of the hospital that till this is done we cannot proceed,” he continued. Dr Kamini Rao, director of Milann medical, did not respond to repeated calls from Express. Dr Gautham T P, senior vice president, operations, Milann, said, “This is between the police and the committee. We are in touch with our patients but neither the hospital nor the donor and recepients have anything to do with it.