An Indian doctor who was arrested two years ago after transplanting pig organs into a man with end stage heart disease has said that he will continue xenotransplantation trials later this year. Dr Dhani Ram Baruah, a cardiac surgeon from India's northeastern Assam state, has also sought damages from the government for what he says was his illegal arrest and obstruction to his xenotransplantation research.
Dr Baruah transplanted a pig's heart and lungs into a 32 year old man with ventricular septal defect in January 1997. Dr Baruah stated that he carried out the transplantation procedure on a dying patient who had failed to respond to conventional surgery, with consent from the patient and his family. The patient died of multiple infections seven days after the operation.
The state government detained Dr Baruah for 40 days, on charges that he had violated India's human organ transplantation act, before releasing him on bail. Baruah has now complained to the National Human Rights Commission that he was wrongfully arrested and defamed because the act has no relevance to xenotransplantation procedures. Dr Baruah claimed that state health authorities had misinterpreted the act, which bans organ retrieval from live, unrelated human donors. He argued that the authorities had obstructed his research, tarnished his reputation, and prevented him from performing even routine open heart surgery by cutting off electricity and water supplies to his hospital. Baruah has sought 52 billion rupees (£800000; $1.3bn) as compensation.
The commission has asked the state government to respond to his allegations. It will also hold a meeting later this month with medical experts, including officials of the Indian Medical Association, to discuss xenotransplantation.