CUTTACK: The SCB Medical College and Hospital here achieved a major milestone by performing a complicated bone marrow transplant (BMT) procedure in its Haematology department on Thursday. The special BMT unit, started in February 2014, conducted its 105th procedure on Ramakanta Pradhan (51), a relapsed blood cancer patient from Vyasanagar in Jajpur district.
The patient who is diabetic and been taking insulin since 2012, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma (a type of blood cancer) was treated with chemotherapy from six months in 2019.
Unfortunately, the cancer relapsed in August 2021 following which he again went through chemotherapy for three months, the same year. He was being treated at a Bengaluru hospital, which advised BMT as the last resort.
However, the estimated cost of BMT would have been Rs 15-20 lakh, which Pradhan couldn't afford. The Odisha government stepped in and facilitated BMT free of cost at SCB MCH.
Head of the Haematology department Prof. Rabindra Kumar Jena said the patient was evaluated for BMT as per protocol and stem cell was collected and stored in cryo-preservation for eight days this month.
The complicated BMT was done on Thursday at 11 am by a team of experts led by Prof. Jena and comprising of Dr. S Sethy, Dr. RK Nayak, Dr. MM Biswal, Dr. DJ Prusty, Prof. Smita Mohapatra, Prof. MR Pattanaik and Dr. Sarat Kumar Parida.
SCB MCH is the only State-run hospital in the country to complete 105 BMT procedures. It has achieved the second highest numbers of BMT procedure conducted in the eastern India after Tata Medical Centre, Kolkata.
"The State government under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is committed to provide best of treatment to the people free of cost here. Free BMT at SCB MCH has come as a boon for blood cancer patients and saved many lives. We have a high record of survival rate than any other hospital in the country," said Prof Jena.