External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday underwent a kidney transplant at AIIMS, with the organ being harvested from a living unrelated donor.

According to sources at AIIMS, the nearly five-hour-long surgery was conducted at the cardio-thoracic centre by a team of doctors, including AIIMS director MC Mishra, surgeons VK Bansal, V Seenu and nephrologist Sandeep Mahajan.

“The surgery started at 9 am and ended at 2.30 pm following which the minister has been shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the same building,” the sources said.

“Living, unrelated donor could be anyone who is emotionally attached to the recipient, such as a friend, a relative, a neighbour or an in-law. As no suitable donor was available in the immediate family, the transplant was done with the kidney from a living unrelated donor.”

According to doctors, 64-year-old Swaraj has been suffering from diabetes for quite a long time. After the kidney failure diagnosis, she was put on maintenance dialysis.

“She was undergoing dialysis thrice a week,” a senior doctor said.

On November 16, Sushma had tweeted that she was in AIIMS because of kidney failure.