Ahmedabad: Father’s day may be a particular day to show our love and gesture to our father, but here in a real life incident a father-in-law shows his love and concerned to daughter-in-law by donating his kidney, as the woman real father and her family refuses to do so.
Hemdas Vaishnav from Rajasthan put every effort to get a no-objection certificate from a hospital, so that he would be able to donate his kidney to his bahu, Bedamidevi Vaishnav (28). When Bedami’s own father, mother, and sisters refused to donate citing health fears or social concerns, Hemdas decided to take a stand for his ailing daughter-in-law.
Hemdas who is a farmer in Jaisalmer, Rajathan said “The daughter-in-law is also a daughter of the family, she is the wife of my son and the mother of my grandchildren, by saving her life, I am saving my family’s life.” Hemdas rues the fact that while fathers can donate kidneys to their children, a father-in-law has to undertake a mountain of paperwork. Once the NOC comes through, he will donate the kidney to his bahu at the Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Hospital (IKDRC), Ahmedabad.
Bedami’s husband, Ashok, is a taxi driver. They have two children Yuvraj (8) and Prince (6). She was diagnosed with kidney failure a year ago when her persistent backache, constant weakness, and loss of appetite made it difficult for her to get out of bed.
Bedami said “I would never have expected my father-in-law to donate his kidney to me especially when my family, including my father, had refused to do so.” She has been staying in Ahmedabad for the past four months and is on dialysis.
“I am due for a transplant as soon as we get the NOC. For me, my father-in-law is not only more than a father but is also God.” In Gujarat, over 8,000 kidney transplants have taken place in government, trust-run, and private hospitals in the past years. Experts say that a father-in-law donating a kidney to his daughter-in-law is a rare occurrence.
In Nadiad Kidney Hospital where over 2,800 transplants have been recorded, not a single such instance has been documented. At the IKDRC, which has performed roughly 5,000 kidney transplants, there have been three-odd cases of fathers-in-law donating kidneys to their bahus.
Priya Shah said the transplant coordinator at IKDRC “It is a very rare phenomenon,men who give a lease of life to their bahus should be saluted.”
