TANKER family joins the patients, colleagues and fans of Dr. Georgi Abraham in congratulating him on being elected the President of the Indian Society of Organ Transplantation (ISOT). He will take charge in October 2022.

It has been an uphill task as far as Dr Georgi Abraham is concerned in realising his dream of deceased donor transplantation programme to make the future of kidney patients better.

Kidney transplantation was successfully initiated in Christian Medical College in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, from 1971, where Dr Georgi Abraham worked from 1980. He found the training very impactful.

He says in his autobiography, ‘My Patients My God – Journey of a Kidney Doctor’, the Toronto fellowship programme in deceased donor kidney and heart transplantation under Dr. Carl J. Cardella and, later, Dr. Edward H. Cole, sharpened his knowledge and skills greatly and “I was prepared to take this forward when I started the work at Tamilnad Hospital in 1991”.

“My guide and Member of Parliament, Prof. P.J. Kurien, kindly forwarded my letter to the honourable Health Minister of India in 1991, requesting enactment of a law for clipping unregulated, unrelated kidney transplantation and enabling deceased donor transplantation. We were in uncharted waters till then. Prof. Kurien raised the issue in Parliament and the seeds were sown to take this forward, leading to enactment of THOA Law for deceased donor transplantation in India in 1994 which was an unprecedented move,” says Dr Georgi Abraham in the book.

Dr Georgi Abraham recalls that Prof. Kurien was felicitated by Prof. Jeremy Chapman, President of The Transplantation Society (TTS), an international body, with a medal in New Delhi at the 6th World Organ Donation Day conference in 2010.

After the enactment of the Indian Transplantation law in 1994, Dr. Georgi Abraham and colleagues implemented the first multi-organ, deceased donor transplantation in India at Chennai in 1995.

Teething Trouble

But it was not as easy as it sounds. A brain dead 40-year-old man from Neyveli Lignite Corporation Hospital was brought to Tamilnadu Hospital. Since renowned heart surgeon of Madras Medical Mission (MMM), Dr. K.M. Cherian, required the heart for a young patient, the heart and kidney were donated. “The donor patient was shifted to MMM after verbal permission from the Tamilnad Hospital superintendent”, and the transplantation performed successfully. This was the first multi-organ donation in India, but Dr. Georgi Abraham was pulled up for heart donation in another hospital, Fortunately, the situation was set right later.

Deceased Donor Transplantation

Deceased donor transplantation programme met with resistance in the early years. Brain dead certification was the monopoly of a few government medical college neurosurgeons and physicians, says Dr Georgi Abraham in his book.

To overcome this, TANKER Foundation called a meeting of doctors and the public, including the media, with a retired High Court judge presiding, to request the Government of Tamil Nadu to support and expand manpower for brain death certification.

The media highlighted this in 1996. “The rest is history as the Tamil Nadu deceased donation programme is the best in the country in terms of public-private partnership,” writes the nephrology specialist.

This Is A First

The successful kidney transplantation from poisonous cobra-bite brain dead victims, which was reported for the first time in the world by his team in the journal ‘Transplantation’ in 1997, was a breakthrough.

When working in Sri Ramachandra Medical University in Porur, “there was an accelerated momentum” in kidney transplantations. “We used poisoned organ donors, including overdose, organophosphorus victims, suicidal hanging and snake bite victims”, elaborates the surgeon.

The programme got upscaled to one in two weeks with deceased donors.

In 1999, Dr Georgi Abraham transplanted a kidney from a snake bite victim in a man from Kerala. He was a bachelor and rich land and distillery owner. Unfortunately, he died of infection two years later.

When there was a case between his nephews and his partner in business, Dr. Georgi Abraham was dragged into it. He was blamed for using snake bite victim’s organ, leading to his death. Apart from being an accused in an alleged murder case, there was also a media trial by leading Malayalam newspapers.

Finally, Dr Georgi Abraham turned to Prof. Jeremy Chapman, President of The Transplantation Society, to lucidly explain the medical knowledge about using snake bite victim’s kidney for transplantation and a testimonial about his integrity, to escape from the criminal case.

“To share this medical knowledge, this successful experience was published as a first in the world in ‘Transplantation’ 2010, the official journal of The Transplantation Society,” says the autobiography.

Writing a testimonial in Dr Georgi Abraham’s book, Dr. J. Subramanian of Jeyanth Nallathambi Hospital, Thoothukudi, who studied nephrology under him in Sri Ramachandra Medical College, says the first deceased donor multi-organ transplantation in Chennai in 1995 led to Tamil Nadu taking the lead in the programme. It established a formal provincial waitlist for deceased donor organ transplantation, a task that was considered as being logistically unachievable, he says.

“This initiative has become a shining example for other Indian states that have implemented strategies to replicate and epitomise this model,” explains Dr. Subramanian.

Reading this, who will then contest Dr. Georgi Abraham’s ascension as President-Elect of the Indian Society of Organ Transplantation? Kudos to the nephrologist.

His Achievements

Georgi Abraham. MD, MRCP, FRCP
Professor & Consultant, MGM Healthcare, Chennai.
Previously Prof. at Sri Ramachandra Medical College, Chennai & Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry
Past Founder-President, Peritoneal Dialysis Society of India
President-Elect of Indian Society of Organ Transplantation
Governing Council Member International Society of Nephrology
International Society of Peritoneal Dialysis (Past)
Founder Executive Member of World Kidney Day (WKD)
Editor-in-Chief: Indian Journal of Peritoneal Dialysis & Nephrology, Urology & Transplantation of SARC countries
International Advisor, Royal College of Physicians, London
Editor-in-Chief of Text Book of Medicine by Kumar & Clark