CIMS multi super specialty hospital, Ahmedabad in association with Sankalp India Foundation performed 150 Paediatric Bone Marrow Transplants helping change the lives of many thalassemia major children and their families.

Thalassemia is one of the most prevalent blood disorders in the world. In India, more than 10,000 thalassemia major children are born every year. This is because in most cases, parents do not know they have thalassemia minor and learn about it only when a child suffering from thalassemia major is born. The only curative treatment for thalassemia is bone marrow transplant from a Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) matching donor.

The hospital and Sankalp came together to establish the BMT unit in 2017 as a step in the direction of making India thalassemia-free. The initiative is supported by Cure2Children an Italy based organization that provides medical knowledge, clinical management support and patient funding on a need basis.

“Sankalp India Foundation takes care of patient preparedness, financial and personnel planning, whereas CIMS provides essential clinical services and infrastructure as a part of the philanthropic collaboration. We are pleased to inform that we have helped 150 children and their families with this initiative. Also, there is a waiting list of 80 more children and we are working on their treatment plan. We aim to help many more children get rid of thalassemia and lead a healthy and happy life,” said Dr. Deepa Trivedi, Programme Director, Sankalp CIMS Multi Super Specialty Hospital, Ahmedabad Paediatric BMT Unit.

One hundred and twenty-nine patients, with a median age of 8.6 years, have been offered a fully matched related donor transplant with overall survival of 96%. Twenty-one patients with a median age of 8.1 years have been offered partially matched related donor transplants.

 Dr. Lawrence Faulkner, Medical Director, Sankalp India Foundation and Cure2Children, said,  “Completing 150 transplants has unquestionably been a major achievement by the whole team. Even more importantly, these outstanding outcomes have been obtained at a fraction of the cost as compared to western centres. I am not aware of any centre globally that has performed better in terms of value delivery to patients and their families.”