Eighteen lives will be saved every single day at a suburban hospital in the Indian town of Madras thanks to a donation from Bermuda.

The Dialysis Unit of the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital has donated three kidney machines to the Lions Group of Hospitals in the heavily populated Indian east coast town, where 55,000 people suffer from kidney failure.

Bermuda's Dialysis director, Dr. Beresford Swan, said the donation made last month had been kept quiet until now in case something went wrong in the complex process of delivering and setting up the machines.

He commended the Somers Lioness Club -- in particular Lioness Dessaline Waldron -- for organising the gift.

He also thanked British Airways for transporting both the equipment and a local technician to the suburb of Chennai in Madras.

"This will save lives while people are waiting for a transplant,'' he said yesterday. "That's what we hope to achieve, saving a lot of lives.'' "In Bermuda we have an extremely high rate of kidney failure -- totaling about 60 people who need dialysis machines. But in Madras there are 55,000 people who need them.

"Sadly their economy means they can't give people dialysis unless the person has a relative who is donating a kidney and they're just waiting for the transplant.'' "And if they don't get dialysis they will die. That's what was happening before they got these machines.'' "One machine can take six people over 24 hours so the three we donated can save 18 lives a day.'' And the chairman of the Indian hospital, Dr. Vasantlal Mehta, has sent an official thank you note back to Bermuda. He wrote: "It is such timely donations from noble-hearted persons like you that is making this hospital render useful service. This gesture of yours will go a long way in bringing cheer to poor patients awaiting relief.'' Dr. Swan said Bermuda could spare the machines -- which clean poison out of the blood when a person's kidney is failing to do so -- because much newer technology was now available here.

"These were the first machines we had about 20 years ago. And they've become a bit obsolete for us so this seemed much better than throwing them out in the trash.

"We've got state-of-the-art technology now and we can definitely keep up with local demand.

"The old machines did a very good job but they were a bit primitive and could be very tedious. Compared to the machines we have now they would be like using a World War One fighter plane instead of a modern jet.'' In mid-November, King Edward VII Memorial Hospital dialysis technician Richard Smith flew to Madras to set up the units at the community hospital.

"When I left there, from the planning point of view, they had everything ready to go. They were all ready to start treating patients and saving lives.''