Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals claims to have completed 500 liver transplants on patients from Pakistan with a success rate of over 90 per cent.
Announcing the achievement on Wednesday, Prof. Anupam Sibal, group medical director and senior paediatric gastroenterologist, Apollo Hospitals, said: “We have created a milestone by becoming the first hospital in the country to reach the 500-mark for patients from a single foreign country. Pakistani patients constitute 29 per cent of the liver transplant performed at Apollo Hospitals, Delhi.”
Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Subash Gupta, chief liver transplant surgeon at the hospital, said: “Our 500th Pakistani patient is two-year-old Nalain Aziz from Lahore. He developed jaundice on the seventh day and was diagnosed to have extra hepatic biliary atresia. Later despite being hospitalised in Pakistan multiple times the jaundice worsened and he also had bleeding from the swollen veins in his food pipe. He was referred for a liver transplant which is the only treatment for liver failure.”
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The child had deep jaundice and features of end-stage liver failure. He was detected to have a urinary tract infection that was treated and thereafter he was taken up for a liver transplant after detailed assessments.
“His blood group, O+, matched with that of his mother who became his liver donor. Both mother and son have recovered well. He underwent the transplant in March and was discharged this month. Nalain’s liver function tests are normal and he is ready to go back to Lahore to celebrate his next birthday,” added Dr. Gupta.