Punjabi man has five kidneys in his body

A Punjabi photographer has made headlines worldwide with the revelation that he has five kidneys – the two he was born with and others donated by two sisters and his mother.

Jaswant Singh, 33, received a donated organ from his sister Harjindar Kaur in 2002 and when it failed just over a year later accepted another from his younger sister Ranvit Kaur.

Unfortunately, the kidney failed after 14 months as he ceased taking post-operative medicine designed to prevent rejection – because he could no longer afford it.

The transplant sequence started in 2002 after his kidneys suddenly failed.

Before and in between the operations as the organs failed he was sustained by kidney dialysis. Doctors decided it was unwise to remove the defunct organs.

Mr Singh told the media his family were determined he should live and this time it was his mother Amar Kaur, 56, who provided the replacement kidney.

Staff at India’s National Kidney Hospital were touched by the photographer’s plight and his family’s sacrifices and performed the latest transplant surgery without charge.

The family had paid hundreds of thousands of rupees for previous operations.

Mr Singh said his mother’s kidney was functioning well with the support of heavy medication but whether it would do so long-term would become clear when the medication was reduced.

He said his ill health had been such that he could not work for months at a time or travel far from home.

He told how moved he had been by the sacrifices made on his behalf, physically and financially. His father delivers milk and is brother is a tax driver so his family is far from affluent.

There was no way that he could repay what they had done for him, he said.