The PMSSY (Pradhana Manthri Swastya Suraksha Yojana) super-speciality hospital commenced its liver transplant programme on Friday making the expensive surgery available for the urban poor at an affordable cost.
The cadaveric liver transplant was conducted on 38-year-old B. Somashekar from Shivanahalli in Rajajinagar by airlifting the organ from Mangaluru. A green corridor was created to transport the organ from the Kempegowda International Airport to PMSSY hospital located on the campus of Victoria Hospital. The ambulance carrying the organ covered 38 kilometres in 32 minutes.
The procedure, which took over ten hours, began around 1.30 pm on Friday.
The donor, Leena Binoy (42) who was brain dead, had met with a road accident in Mangaluru on July 1.
The procedure, which costs over Rs. 30 lakh in private hospitals, was done for less than Rs. 3 lakh at PMSSY hospital. The recipient, who is employed in a lodge in Rajajinagar, has been under treatment for chronic liver disease in the hospital for the last one-and-a-half years.
While over 300 patients have registered with the Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka for Transplantation (ZCCK), 60 have enrolled in the PMSSY hospital’s liver clinic.
Nagesh N.S., who heads the transplant team at PMSSY hospital, said of the 60, 11 had been worked up and registered with ZCCK. “We are in the process of working up 20 more patients,” he said, adding that the programme would be a boon to poor patients who cannot afford the treatment cost in private hospitals.
The organ was airlifted from Mangaluru
