State's only free BMT service at SCB on 'death bed'

AFTER the liver transplant fiasco and a struggling kidney transplant unit, the highly successful bone marrow transplant (BMT) unit at SCB medical college and hospital (SCBMCH) in Cuttack seems to have been pushed to its death bed.

- HEMANT KUMAR ROUT @Bhubaneswar

The state-of-the-art facility, which had the distinction of being the first government-run centre in the country to offer free bone marrow transplants, is gasping for survival for the last few months, thanks to the political and bureaucratic apathy.

The last transplant performed at the unit, in February 2025, was a milestone in itself as it was the first paediatric allogeneic transplant in the state. Since then, the lights have dimmed, and the life-saving care has come to a grinding halt.

People privy to the development attributed the sudden downfall of the unit to severe crunch of transplant specialists and the failure of the state government to retain experts.