A 60-year-old man with End-Stage Liver Disease escaped death by a whisker availing a liver transplant in the city, just two days after registering for the organ.
Jeevandan, the state-run organ donation programme, received a request on December 31 from the man, who was not named to prevent identification, for liver. The request was categorised ‘super emergency’ as his Model for End-Stage Liver Disease or MELD score was 33, associated with an extremely high risk of mortality.
The donation came from a 31-year-old who suffered a fatal road accident at Konijerla, Khammam. Father of two, V. Ravi Kumar, a private employee was on his two-wheeler when he suffered severe head injuries. After receiving first aid at a local hospital, he was brought to a corporate hospital in the city, where he was declared brain dead on Monday.
After being counselled, Mr. Kumar’s family agreed to donate his liver, kidneys, heart and corneas.
The kidneys have been transplanted into two 35-year-olds on dialysis for over a year while his heart was transplanted into a woman with ventricular problems. The corneas were donated to an eye bank.
Jeevandan officials say in the normal course of registering for an organ, it takes at least six months for a patient to get a liver for transplant. “In this case, a matching liver was found immediately owing to the patient’s critical condition,” said an official.
The state’s organ donation scheme saw its number of donations increase last year and touch 100. Doctors credit increased awareness for the rise but also call for better trauma care facilities in the State’s public hospitals where few organs compared to private hospitals are harvested and fewer transplants performed.