Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, who had underwent a kidney transplant surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS ) on Saturday, has shown “steady recovery” and shifted out of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The Minister’s family on Tuesday expressed happiness over her recovery.
According to the AIIMS officials, the 64-year-old Minister is likely to be discharged next week or ten days. “The minister has been shifted out of the ICU to a private ward of the Cardio-Neuro Centre. She has shown steady recovery and her post-operation recovery is being closely monitored,” said Dr Amit Gupta, PRO AIIMS.
He said a team of surgeons, physicians (endocrinologist, nephrologist, cardiologist and pulmonologist) and anaesthesists besides critical care experts, physiotherapists and transplant specialists are monitoring the Minister.
“She is likely to be discharged in another seven or 10 days,” said AIIMS Director MC Mishra. The woman who had donated her kidney to the Minister is also in the process of being discharged, he added.
Sushma’s husband and former Mizoram Governor Swaraj Kaushal also tweeted on Tuesday, “It was nice to see a cheerful @sushmaswaraj sitting in a chair in just 18 hours of her surgery. Thank you God.”
A senior doctor at AIIMS said, “During surgeries, the recipient is put on Immunosuppressants in order to lower the body’s ability to reject a transplanted organ. That is the reason why the Minister, after the transplant, was shifted to ICU and kept in isolation to avoid any infection.”
AIIMS earlier had stated that the surgery of Swaraj was successful and uneventful. Swaraj’s nearly six-hour long surgery was performed by a team of 50 personnel led by Dr Mukut Minz, former head of the department of renal transplant surgery at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) and Dr V K Bansal from AIIMS. Minz is currently with Fortis, Mohali. A team of transplant anesthesiologists, nurses, technicians and other support staff assisted them.
After Swaraj made public her health condition on social media, several people had offered their kidneys to her.