This story is from December 27, 2022

AIIMS-Delhi bone bank gets year’s first donation, from soldier’s wife

The bone bank of AIIMS Delhi received its first donation for transplant this year after a serving soldier consented to donate his 28-year-old brain dead wife’s bones at R&R Hospital, where she was brought after a cylinder blast at their house in Gwalior over a week ago.
AIIMS-Delhi bone bank gets year’s first donation, from soldier’s wife
AIIMS-Delhi
NEW DELHI: The bone bank of AIIMS Delhi received its first donation for transplant this year after a serving soldier consented to donate his 28-year-old brain dead wife’s bones at R&R Hospital, where she was brought after a cylinder blast at their house in Gwalior over a week ago.
The institute received bones on December 17 after a gap of almost three years as the last such donation was done in March 2020.
In all, bones of 30 people have been donated since the bank’s inception in 1999. Unfortunately, this year none of the 16 organ donors at AIIMS donated bones.
bone_bank_donation_aiims_delhi

“The donated bones can be used for replacing a lost segment due to cancer, injury or infection and also in revision joint replacement cases. They can also be used to fill cavities or holes left by major cancer surgeries. One person’s bones can benefit at least 20 people,” said Dr Rajesh Malhotra, chief of AIIMS Trauma Centre and head of the orthopaedics department.
R&R Hospital authorities said they retrieved the bones of a brain dead patient for the first time. The woman’s femur, tibia fibula and patella with the tendons were given to AIIMS and would be shared with them, if needed for a patient. Though the patient’s family had given consent for transplant of all organs, they could not be retrieved due to deterioration because of the blast injuries, said a doctor.
Professor Malhotra, who set up the bone bank at AIIMS, said lack of knowledge, misconceptions and religious sentiments were the major reasons behind fewer bone donations. “People think that taking out bones will mutilate and disfigure the body and the limbs of the dead person will dangle, which is incorrect. Another apprehension among people is that they think donating bones will reduce the quantity of ash on cremation,” he added.

“Not every bone from the body is taken out, except the eight lower limbs, including the two kneecaps. Ligaments and cartilages of the knee between the thigh and shin bone can also be retrieved. Once the bones are taken out, the body is reconstructed by putting wooden sticks and stuffing it with cotton to restore the shape of the limbs and knee so that it looks good aesthetically and the dignity of the donor is maintained. Cotton is used to absorb fluids and the body is not left in a puddle of blood after the procedure,” said Malhotra.
The doctor said thousands of cancer and trauma patients need bone transplant in India every year and very few get it due to shortage.
Recently, a 26-year-old man from Delhi recovering from osteosarcoma visited AIIMS with pain in his operated leg with inability to walk for the past 14 months. He had undergone resection of the tumour with six cycles of chemotherapy in 2010. An endoprosthesis was applied to make up for the loss of his knee joint at the age of 13 years. “We used the cadaveric bone as a scaffold to reconstruct his knee. Now, eight months have passed and the patient is able to walk independently,” Malhotra told TOI.
Talking to TOI, the patient said he was lucky to get bones in time and now he was doing well because of someone’s large heartedness. He appealed to people to come forward and donate bones like other organs.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA