Catholic priest to donate kidney to Muslim man

Muhammad, the only breadwinner for his ailing parents and minor brother, advertised for donors.

Thiruvananthapuram:  Timely help by a Catholic priest will help save the life of a Muslim man in Kerala.

Father Kidangathazhe Sebastian, 41, will donate one of his kidneys to 30-year-old Rasad Muhammad, the preparations for which are underway and the transplant surgery is likely to be performed next month.

Muhammad is suffering from chronic kidney disease since more than a year. On February 25, he boarded a bus from Aluva to go to Kochi for his check-up.

Fr Sebastian, who is associated with the Catholic Goodness TV and who was then not wearing his cassock, was seated next to him.

"He looked very weak and burdened. He told me the story of his tragedy and his desperate search for a kidney donor," Fr Sebastian said.

"I was seized of the pain of a life facing death. I made a cursory query about his blood group, which matched mine," he added.

For the Idukki priest, the fortuitous match held special significance. It signaled to him the end of his silent quest to practice what he had been preaching.

"Inspired by the story of Fr Davis Chiramel, who had donated one of his kidneys to a Hindu man in 2009, I had been longing to make the same sacrifice. Somewhere, I hoped,

I would meet the deserving person. What mattered to me most was that the decision would save a life. I realised that the person seated beside me in the bus was the most deserving person,'' he said.

The following day, they went to the hospital to start the procedure for donation and transplant. The tests have been positive. "A few counseling sessions and a final nod from the medical board remain. In all probability, the transplant will take place within a month," said the priest.

Muhammad said he was initially shocked by the words of the stranger in the bus. "But, in the next moment, I realized that a priest would not lie."

He was a salesman in Saudi Arabia until kidney disease cost him his sight and forced him to return home to Harippad in Kerala.

He could see again but there was little chance of his surviving without a transplant.

Muhammad, the only breadwinner for his ailing parents and minor brother, advertised for donors.

"A few donors turned up, but nothing materialized. In the meantime, touts cheated me of 250,000. I was dependant on periodic dialyses in a private hospital in Kochi," he said.

Fr. Sebastian is the fourth Catholic priest in the country to donate kidney after Fr. Davis Chiramel of Trichur archdiocese and Fr. Jacob Kozhuvally and Fr. Joseph Kodiyan of Ernakulum.

Source: Indian Express