<div><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said Bangladesh has achieved the capacity in conducting critical medical surgeries including kidney transplantation.</span><br></b></div><div><br></div><div>"Bangladesh has gained huge progress in medical treatment. It has now become capable to carry out many critical operations including kidney transplant," she noted during an interaction with a Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) delegation at her official Ganabhaban residence in the capital.</div><div><br></div><div>BSMMU vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Md Sharfuddin Ahmed led the delegation which paid a courtesy call on her at Ganabhaban, the premier’s Deputy Press Secretary KM Shakhawat Moon briefed newsmen after the meeting.</div><div><br></div><div>According to Moon, the premier said her government has reached healthcare services to every doorstep following the footstep of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.</div><div><br></div><div>She said her government has given topmost priority on extending healthcare services to the people.</div><div><br></div><div>Concerned physicians, kidney transplanted patients Shamima Akhter and Shabnam Sultana and mother of Kidney donor Sara Islam were present, among others.</div><div><br></div><div>Earlier on January 19 last, a team of physicians at BSMMU Hospital led by Prof Dr Habibur Rahman Dulal successfully transplanted kidneys collected from a clinically dead person to two patients.</div><div><br></div><div>It was the first cadaveric kidney transplant performed in the country.</div><div><br></div><div>They took the kidneys from Sara Islam, a 20-year-old patient who was at the intensive care unit and declared clinically dead on January 18 afternoon.</div><div><br></div><div>The kidneys were collected after Sara's mother gave her consent for the operation.</div><div><br></div><div>Kidney transplantation from living donors began in Bangladesh in 1982. But taking a kidney from a clinically dead patient was restricted legally.</div><div><br></div><div>In 2018, the organ donation law was amended allowing collection of organs from the clinically dead with consent from concerned relatives. Source: BSS</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>