ICSUS Past President and current member of the ICS World Executive Committee, Dr. Thav Thambi from Sioux Falls, SD; recently returned to his homeland, Sri Lanka. While there he performed the first living donor kidney transplant in the Northern part of the country. On January 18th, the recipient, a 17-year old girl; received a kidney from her mother. Donor surgery was done laparoscopically, which is a rarity in that part of the world! The donor and recipient are doing well, both have been discharged.
The surgeries were performed at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital in a Northern province of Sri Lanka where Dr. Sathyan is the Director/CEO of the 1,200-bed teaching hospital. Dr. Sathyan spent a week in Spring of 2022 with Dr. Thambi at the Sanford USD Medical Center, meeting with most of the staff and learning about US hospital/health systems and QI efforts/projects.
Upon his return, Dr. Thambi expressed his sincere appreciation to his colleagues from Sanford for their assistance and support.
A future mission project to Sri Lanka is being contemplated by ICSUS. Anyone interested should contact ICSUS Headquarters at info@ficsonline.org.
Below Dr. Thambi is in the OR (green scrubs) and also with the entire team after the procedures were completed.