Kidney Transplant: Documents of donor, receiver falsified

The committee tasked with probing a possible scam involving the first-ever kidney transplant surgery at the newly inaugurated BSMMU Super Specialised Hospital found that the documents concerning the relationship between the donor and the recipient had been falsified with the latter's consent.

Both the donor and the recipient have admitted the matter to the probe committee, officials at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) told this newspaper yesterday.

"The committee however did not find anyone from the hospital to be involved in the scam. We will publish the details of the probe report tomorrow (Monday)," said Prof Dr Sharfuddin Ahmmed.

As per documents, Suzon Roy, 42, received the kidney from his sibling Susen Roy, 31, on July 17.

However, it was later revealed that the donor's real name is Sumit Hawlader and he is not the recipient's brother.

Organ donations beyond family members are strictly prohibited by the country's law.

As such, the BSMMU authority formed a probe committee two days later on July 19 to investigate the matter.

The committee recorded the statements of the kidney donor, the recipient, their family members, the legal officer of the BSMMU, and the head of the transplant surgery team on July 20 and 23.

They also scrutinised the documents submitted by the donor and the recipient.

"The donor and the recipient have admitted that they falsified the papers. The law enforcers can now investigate how they did it," said Prof Habibur Rahman Dulal, proctor of BSMMU, who led the transplant surgery team.

Sources said that Suzon reached Sumit with the help of an organ trafficking ring.

Suzon, who was a migrant worker in Greece, told Sumit that he could also be taken to Greece if he donated one of his kidneys to him.