The founder-director of Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre (IKDRC) and Institute of Transplantation Sciences (ITS) and one of the pioneers in kidney transplantation in the country, Padma Shri HL Trivedi, breathed his last at around 2.35 pm on Wednesday. He was 87-year-old and is survived by his wife Sunita.
Doctors said he was suffering from age-related ailments for a long time and was in an intensive care unit (ICU) for the past two months. IKDRC’s in-charge director Aruna Vanikar said the body will be kept at the institute on Thursday from 8 to 11 am for people to pay tribute and the last rites will be held at Dudheshwar Ghat.
Born on August 31, 1932, in Charadva village of Surendranagar district, Trivedi evolved as a scholastic genius who undertook his basic school education in Saurashtra followed by medical education in BJ Medical College, Ahmedabad.
Subsequently, he went to the United States of America (USA), where he qualified for nephrology at Cleveland Clinic, Ohio. He had also qualified as a chest physician but chose to pursue nephrology.
He achieved prestigious positions in Canda due to his hard work and intellect. However, he eventually left Canada and returned to India. He went on to establish IKDRC at Ahmedabad with the help of the local government and friends, which has evolved into an institute that conducts around 400 kidney transplants every year, the highest in thecountry. Notably, Trivedi has conducted over 5,000 kidney transplants in his career.
He also developed the liver transplantation programme at the institute with the help of professor Carl Groth, Nobel Assembly Chairman and liver transplant surgeon at Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Trivedi is also considered a pioneer in stem cell research and transplantation with minimal or no immunosuppressant to patients.
He was the man behind setting up the Gujarat University of Transplantation Sciences, a first of its kind university in the country. Also, the Gujarat Dialysis Programme, which is hailed as one of the best dialysis programme across the world, was also his brainchild.
Under the programme, a network of dialysis facilities across the state was developed so that patients do not have to travel long distances to get dialysis done. In a message that he has left for the world, Trivedi wrote: “If anyone wants to remember me, it should be as the physician who cared for his patients and a patriot who cared for his country”.