Sister born from IVF to save brother's life, first 'miracle' in India

Shobita Dhar: He was born to save his brother. Meet Kavya Solanki, India's first 'Savior Sibling'. The baby is prepared to be revived by donating an organ, bone marrow or cells to an older brother or sister. Stem cells are taken from the cord blood or blood of Savior Siblings to fight Thalassemia blood disorder. Savior siblings are prepared from IVF so that pre-implantation can be genetically diagnosed (or tested). This can be used to determine if a child has a genetic defect, as well as whether the bone marrow is compatible. Adam Nash is the world's first savior sibling and was born in 2000 in the US.

Now Kavya Solanki is 1 year old. Kavya was trained by Fertility Clinics Chain Nova IVF. Kavya has saved the life of her brother Abhijeet. Abhijeet was diagnosed with thalassemia when he was just a few months old. Abhijeet has undergone blood transfusions 80 times in his 6 years of life and has been given chelation therapy. However, bone marrow transplant was the only option that could give Abhijit a normal life. He could not have lived more than 30 years without a bone marrow transplant.

Abhijeet has an older sister but her bone marrow did not match. Eventually his parents Aparna and Sahadev Solanki decided to prepare Savior Sibling for Abhijeet to save the son. Notably, both Aparna and Sahadeva have minor thalassemia.

The director of Nova IVF in Ahmedabad, Dr. Manish Banker said, "In the first cycle of IVF, 18 embryos (embryos) were prepared and later the bone marrow was tested to see if it matched with PGT-M (preimplantation genetic test for monogenic disorder). Only 1 out of 18 fetuses passed all the tests. The fetus was later placed in Aparna's womb and gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Today, Kavya is one year old. ' It is to be mentioned that Kavya was prepared in Ahmedabad itself.

Stem cells in cord blood are commonly used for bone marrow transplants but in this case they were inadequate. Dr. who performed the transplant. Dipti Trivedi said, "In a non-cancer transplant we take stem cells from the bone marrow because it is well accepted by the body. We waited until Kavya's weight was enough and the transplant was done in March this year." Dr. Trivedi is the Program Director of Sankalp-CIMS Bone Marrow Transplant Unit of Sims Hospital.

At the end of the one hour procedure 50 to 200 ml of bone marrow was taken from Kavya's body and later given to Abhijeet. Abhijeet has not needed a blood transfusion for the last 6 months and Kavya is also healthy. Dr. Manish Banker has published the case in the Journal of Human Reproductive Sciences.

Another severe sibling was born at Mumbai's Jaslok Hospital last month. Dr. Firuza Parikh has given birth to this baby through IVF. Dr. Parikh is the head of the IVF and Genetics Center at Jaslok Hospital. Dr. Parikh said, "Both the donor and the recipient are young. The donor is 1 month old and the recipient is 4 years old so the transplant has not been done yet." However, there are concerns about whether the process is ethical. In 2004, the Journal of Medical Ethics stated that there was a fear in people's minds that savior sibling would be seen as just a 'way to get something'. Apart from this, there is also a danger of increasing the popularity of 'Designer Baby'. Babies born this way can be victims of physical and mental abuse.