Lanka Hospital welcomes 500th IVF baby

Friday, 12 July 2013 04:41 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Rashika Fazali Lanka Hospitals Fertility Centre this week announced the birth of its 500th In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) baby born to the Prabakaran family. Father Devapriya Prabakaran speaking to the media said: “For four years, I’ve gone back and forth to many clinics and after everything failed, I finally came here. I am really happy about the birth of my child. With the help of Lanka Hospitals, we’ve been able to have this baby. I am very grateful to the hospital.” Lanka Hospitals CEO Lakith Peiris told the Daily FT that Prabakaran and his wife were residents of Nuwara Eliya who had made this

journey to Lanka Hospitals to have their miracle baby. He added: “It’s the passion and the gratitude they have for the institution to come all the way from Nuwara Eliya to get this done.” Speaking on the milestone, he told the Daily FT: “This is something great. None of the other fertility centres have achieved this milestone. When we did a research on couples who didn’t have kids, we found so many problems. Some people have gone to Singapore and India for fertility tests, pawning everything.” He added that there have been many couples who have spent close to Rs. 3 million for fertility tests and treatments abroad due to lack of knowledge and technology available in the country. Today, fertility issues can be solved at Lanka Hospitals for an affordable price. Their most expensive package inclusive of admission, laparoscopic scanning, etc., comes at a cost of Rs. 550,000. While the standard IVF success rate around the world is noted as 43%, Peiris acknowledged that Lanka Hospitals’ success rate went one notch higher to 44%. Since the inception in 2007, they have had 500 successful IVF births and currently have 120 ongoing pregnancies. This is the only fertility centre that has reached this milestone.

Peiris also stated that there has been an increase of foreign couples coming down to Sri Lanka for IVF treatments which is slowly opening up medical tourism in the country. He added, “The trend is increasing.” The IVF treatment that takes place at Lanka Hospitals is available to all couples until the age of 50. Lanka Hospitals Clinical Embryologist Dr. Madara Ralapanawe stated that although they do IVF treatments for mothers until the age of 50, they are done with much consideration and according to certain policies. It has been stated that the average lifespan in Sri Lanka is considered to be between 70 and 75 years. Such considerations are taken into account for the betterment of the child. The Lanka Hospitals Fertility Centre uses the latest freezing method to store embryos where they are stored and kept for later use if required. It is currently the only centre in the country that performs this procedure. This is also the only centre in South East Asia to have a barcode system for recording al activities carried out from the point of the sperm and egg being donated to the conceptualisation and delivery of the infant. Ralapanawe added: “We are also considerate towards patients’ special wishes such as considering auspicious times when daily insertions are done or allowing them the option of going to their family doctor for the series of injections needed.” Lanka Hospitals has a state-of-the-art Fertility Centre which features medical instruments such as incubators from Germany, micro manipulators and inverted microscopes from Japan and IVF Chamber imported from Australia. They also staff a team of highly skilled doctors, nurses, gynaecologists, embryologists, endocrinologists, urologists and radiologists. At this media briefing, Peiris also felicitated the Fertility Centre staff for their undying support towards making Lanka Hospitals’ Fertility Centre achieve this milestone. Currently, Lanka Hospitals is working on improving the healthcare sector by establishing top class laboratories around Sri Lanka with the referral laboratory placed on the seventh floor of the hospital and bringing in 500 new tests. Pix by Lasantha Kumara