Record: 75th Free Bone Marrow Transplant At Odisha’s SCB Hospital

Cuttack: SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack performed its 75th bone marrow transplant on Thursday. This is a milestone since it is the highest in any state government-run hospital in the country.

There are other firsts to the hospital’s credit: The Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Unit of the hospital extends the treatment free of cost, which is a pioneering effort in the country; Out of the 75 cancer patients who underwent the complex transplant procedure, 70 are healthy and only five have passed away.

“The bone marrow transplant, which a poor patient cannot dream of availing, is extended free of cost in our facility. The Health and Family Welfare Department of Odisha bears the cost of the treatment. Probably no government-run hospital in eastern India has performed so many BMTs,” said R.K. Jena, head of Clinical Haematology Department, SCB Medical College and Hospital and the man behind this unique endeavour.

A BMT unit started on February 26, 2014. In the last six years, Dr. Jena and his team have been conscientiously trying to make life better for cancer patients.

According to Dr. Jena, who was also former president of Indian Society of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, only Tata Medical Center, Kolkata, had done higher number of BMTs than SCB Medical College.

Of the 75 cancer patients, five were above 65 years and conducting BMT on them was no mean achievement. As per Indian Journal of Cancer, very few hospitals in the country have attempted BMT involving elderly persons. Dr. Jena said, “We conducted BMT on one patient who was 74 years old.”

The Odisha government has given the green light to starting more complicated procedures like Allogeneic BMT and Haploidentical BMT from this centre.