The SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, State’s premiere government-run health facility, has achieved a major milestone by performing 100th Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) free of cost.
It is pertinent to note here that the State government had set up a BMT unit at the SCB Medical College Hospital eight years ago. The transplant, the cost of which ran to Rs 15-40 lakh in private healthcare facilities, entirely free here with its cost borne by the government.
The delicate treatment procedure involves infusion of healthy blood-forming stem cells into the body to replace the damaged or diseased bone marrow.
The BMT helps people recover from blood disorders including Acute leukemia (a cancer of blood and bone marrow), Thalassaemia, Sickle Cell Disease, Aplastic Anaemia and other cancerous diseases.
A team of doctors at BMT unit headed by Professor R. K. Jena, head of SCB’s Clinical Hematology department and former president of Indian Hematology Association, successfully performed the procedure on Jacob Pradhan, a former Odisha MLA. He was afflicted with Stage III of Multiple Myeloma, one type of blood cancer with co-morbidities like destruction of multiple vertebral spines, diabetes and dyslipidemia.
With the successful performance of the procedure, the SCB Medical College Hospital at Cuttack has earned the distinction of being the only State government-run hospital in the country to complete 100 cases of BMT.