Three challenging organ transplants, conducted simultaneously, have changed the lives of three patients who were critically ill in the city.
The transplants, conducted last month, kept a team of surgeons at Manipal Hospitals on their toes for 18 straight hours. Within hours of retrieving the organs — heart, liver and one kidney — the doctors transplanted them into three patients simultaneously.
This was made possible thanks to the noble gesture of the husband of 26-year-old nurse Keerthi (name changed) who came forward to donate his wife’s organs after she was declared brain dead on May 2. Ms. Keerthi had suffered a cardio-respiratory arrest followed by hypoxic brain damage. Once the organs were donated, the Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka for Organ Transplantation identified suitable recipients for the vital organs. Three of the identified recipients were from Manipal Hospitals, said Sudarshan Ballal, chairman of the group.
Dr. Ballal thanked the donor’s family for their generosity even in a moment of grief. “Statistics indicate an alarming need for organ transplants in India. It is estimated that every three minutes, a patient is added to the list of those needing a transplant. The need of the hour is a proactive attitude towards organ donation,” he said.
It is not always that a cardiac patient who needs to undergo a transplant urgently gets the organ within a day of his discharge from hospital.
Luck shone on 34-year-old Chandrasekhar N. from Whitefield, who was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and required a transplant at the earliest. Following the donation, he was called back within a day of his discharge from the hospital. “This is our first successful heart transplant…the patient has resumed his normal activities,” said Devananda N.S., consultant cardiothoracic surgeon. He, along with consultant cardiologist Anand Shenoy, performed the transplant.
While the liver transplant was conducted by hepatologist Olithselvan and his team, the renal transplant was conducted by consultant nephrologist Vishwanath Siddini and team.
