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| Dr. Bharat Shah, MD, DNB |
Dr. Shah completed a renal fellowship at the University of Cincinatti and a research fellowship at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, USA. He returned back to India approximately 30 years ago. In addition to his thriving nephrology practice he founded and oversees the Narmada Kidney Foundation in Mumbai, India.
"The decision depends not only on future risk to the donor but also on other factors. I am reminded of a couple where husband, 60 years old, had developed ESKD due to diabetic nephropathy and was on regular hemodialysis. He was not keeping well on dialysis. Other systems were fine and he was an acceptable candidate for transplant. He did not want to take kidney from his young children. Wife, 55 years old, was a doctor and was the only potential donor for him. She was diabetic. She was very keen to donate. She was explained about the long term risk of developing kidney problem herself. She was rejected at all the centers she went to. She then came to me and said "my life is meaningless without my husband. If I donate my kidney now, I may develop diabetic kidney disease many years later and die from that. If I do not donate, my husband may not survive long and if that happens, I cannot survive." I thought that made sense. I accepted her as donor. The husband did well for 10 years after transplant and died of sepsis. Wife is still doing well > 15 years after donating her kidney.
In situations like this I have accepted so far about 15 diabetics and fortunately, none has developed diabetic nephropathy so far."
