Woman donates kidney to her husband despite difference in blood group

In October 2018, Dr Sumathi Kumar was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure. The situation looked grim as none of his relatives who shared his blood type (B+) was fit to donate a kidney and unrelated kidney transplant is not legally viable. His wife Vanitha then came forward to donate a kidney even though her blood group is A-ve. “Though I knocked on the doors of several doctors in Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai, none were willing to perform an incompatible kidney transplantation. Several doctors, in fact, did not even know that there were recent developments where incompatible kidney transplant (that is ABOI — ABO-incompatible) were possible,” he said.