Doctors of a state-run hospital in Cuttack performed Odisha's first cadaver kidney transplantation on a 31-year-old person on 4th February, officials said.

The kidney of 26-year-old donor was transplanted on the patient after a three-hour-long surgery at SCB Medical College and Hospital, they said. Chief Minister lauded the doctors and the donor's family. Doctors of a private hospital in Bhubaneswar declared the woman from Ganjam district's Digapahandi brain dead on February 3 night, days after she sustained critical injuries in a road accident, following which her family members agreed to donate her organs, officials said.

On the direction of the state health department, doctors of the state-run hospital visited the private medical institution and removed her kidney, later transplanting them on the patient, they said. "My son was undergoing treatment for the last eight months. This operation has saved his life," said the patient's mother.

A relative of the brain dead woman said though they mourn her loss, they are happy that she will live in someone. "We would have been happier if her other organs like heart, liver and eyes could also be used to save other people's lives," he said. The CM appreciated the female's family who agreed for the organ donation and the doctors who conducted the operation. "I congratulate the SCBMCH doctors for conducting the state's first cadaveric kidney transplant and also the family members of the woman of Ganjam district for donating her organ.

This has created a new history in Odisha's organ transplant and modern treatment," the CM tweeted in Odia. Meanwhile, the Bhubaneswar-based private hospital, in a statement, has claimed that its doctors conducted the first transplantation of one kidney on another patient after a six- hour-long surgery. The statement said that the other kidney was transported to SCB Medical College and Hospital for another transplantation.