DATRI facilitates meeting between bone marrow donor with recipient

The transplant was carried in May 2016

DATRI, an adult unrelated blood stem cell donors registry, presented India’s first unrelated bone marrow donor, Naval Chaudary in an unique event.

Celebrating the real life hero; Naval, a 28-year-old professional met Fateh Singh, the six- year-old recipient from Amritsar for the first time in Bengaluru. Also present on the occasion was, Dr Sunil Bhat, the renowned paediatric haemato-oncologist from Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre, who carried out this transplant in May 2016.

Singh was diagnosed with Thalassemia Major at the age of one and half years. During the first blood transfusion, it was discovered that his body was unable to produce antibodies as well. As a result, blood transfusion was not possible for him and he required an urgent blood stem cell transplant.

While on the other side of the country, Naval a young professional from Bengaluru registered with DATRI in 2015 in a camp held at his work place. Within a year of registering he received a call from DATRI informing him that he was a perfect match for a six-year-old suffering from an acute form of Thalassemia and required a blood stem cell transplant urgently. As per the registry protocol, the identity of donors and recipients is kept anonymous for one year. Post completion of one year, with consent of both recipient and donor, DATRI facilitates the meeting between the two along with their loved ones.
Speaking on the occasion Dr Bhat said, “We have a number of patients suffering from fatal blood disorders like blood cancer and Thalassemia among others for which the last resort is blood stem cell transplant. For many years, there was no hope for such patients. It is only with registries like DATRI, we have a ray of hope for such patients.”