Ahmedabad boy beats thalassemia with surgeryAHMEDABAD: A year ago, Rishi was a severely ill thalassemia major patient, with A-positive blood group. A year later, he is a healthy 13-kg cherubic child but his blood group has changed to B-positive! The change in his blood group is in fact proof that Rishi’s surgery, the country’s first stem cell transplant from umbilical cord blood of a stranger child received from a private bank, has worked. This is the first such successful experiment in the country which will now help two-and-a-half-year-old Rishi Bhanushali live without frequent blood transfusions. “It has been one year and Rishi is doing well. He is healthy and has been put off immunosuppressant drugs. He is just being given injections to keep up his haemoglobin as cord stem cells take some time for 100% engraftment,” said Dr Sandeep Shah, head of the bone marrow transplant department at Gujarat Cancer Research Institute and Vedant Hospital. Rishi’s survival and good health hold out a lot of hope for thalassemia major children who do not have siblings. In the country, so far bone marrow transplant from stem cells derived from either brother or sister of the patient has been done, with a 70% success rate. This is the first time that stem cells from umbilical cord blood of an unrelated child were used. Rishi did not have a sibling but was lucky as not only did he find a donor umbilical cord blood but got a complete six by six match of HLA typing. After Rishi’s success, the doctors are now poised to perform two more umbilical cord blood stem cell transplants. We have not been able to find a six by six match but are performing the transplants with five by six match. We are hopeful of success,” said Dr Shah.