Bone marrow is soft reddish substance available inside some bones which are responsible for producing blood cells. In many cases life of thalassaemia, bone cancer or other patients can be saved by bone marrow transplantation.
But the problem is, it’s a costly procedure and the facility is not available in Bangladesh. Bone marrow transplantation takes about one crore taka in US, fifty to sixty lakh in Singapore and forty to fifty lakh in India.
A Bangladeshi doctor Bimalangshu R Dey is working as assistant professor at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in United States has arranged a deal between that hospital and Bangladesh government. MGH is providing technical support for setting bone marrow transplantation unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Equipments for the unit is already procured and DMCH authority is hoping that they will be able to do the first transplantation on next June. It will cost about five lakh taka.