The first liver transplant surgery at Medical College Hospital on Monday evening, which lasted over 16 hours, was completed successfully on Tuesday morning. The patient, Basheer (60), who received the liver from a young accident victim, Dhanish Mohan (17), following his brain-death, is currently in the new liver transplant ICU.
While the procedure had been completed successfully, the patient was still in a critical phase and would require continuous monitoring and follow-up care for over a month before the transplant can be deemed fully successful, doctors said.
The surgery, performed jointly by surgeons from MCH and KIMS Hospital, was an achievement for the State’s health sector, as it was also a successful experiment in public-private partnership, enabling affordable liver transplantation.
MoU
MCH had entered into an MoU with KIMS Hospital while setting up its liver transplantation unit.
Accordingly, KIMS Hospital, which is the sole registered liver transplant centre in the State’s south zone, would give technical support to the MCH team, till the unit stabilised.
A press release issued from KIMS said that in the initial phase, 15 liver transplants would be performed at MCH with full support from the KIMS Hospital’s liver transplantation team under B. Venugopal.
KIMS will also be involved in the post-surgical care of patients.
Affordable
The Rs.7.5-crore liver transplantation unit had been set up at MCH so that the expensive surgery was more affordable to the poor. Under the State government’s deceased donor organ donation programme, ‘Mrithasanjeevani,’ which was launched in 2012 August, major organs from 212 brain dead individuals have been transplanted in 570 persons so far, giving them a new lease of life.
While living donor liver transplant is being performed in large numbers in the State’s private sector, the surgery carries a significant risk for the donor. Only deceased donor organ transplantation would be encouraged under ‘Mrithasanjeevani.’
The former Health Minister, V.S. Sivakumar, was one of the first visitors to MCH on Tuesday morning, where he met the families of both the organ donor and the recipient. He also congratulated the surgical team and the MCH authorities on their achievement.
