In a rare swap liver transplant, the 54-year-old wife of a Mumbai-based physician donated a part of her liver to a paan shop owner from Kolhapur, who was suffering from end-stage liver failure.
In turn, the 23-year-old wife of the pan shop owner donated a part of her liver to the physician, who was critical due to relapse of liver cancer. The 14-hour-long procedure carried out on August 6 at Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital required all the four people to be operated on at the same time. It was Mumbai’s second swap liver transplant. Put simply, swap transplant is a barter of organs between two families who fail to find a compatible donor within their own kin. While kidney swaps are common, swap liver transplants are rare.
The physician was diagnosed with liver cancer last December. He was operated in January this year. However, three months later, his cancer recurred. While the physician and his wife did not wish to be identified, the shop owner Santosh Bhendigiri said that his wife Rupa had given a new lease of life to him. “I was prepared to go under the knife,” said Ms. Bhendigiri, a mother of a seven-year-old boy, who donated nearly 60% of her liver. The couple who live in Kolhapur’s Halkarni village met two doctors in their hometown and were first referred to KEM Hospital in Parel. Mr. Bhendigiri had been on KEM Hospital’s cadaver organ waiting list for the past one-and-half years.
Meanwhile, the cost of the liver transplant procedure went up to nearly ₹21 lakh and Mr. Bhendigiri had to sell their newly built house to collect money. She said, “Now we are dependent on my two brothers-in-law to run our house.” Ms. Bhendigiri said one of them is BEST bus conductor in Mumbai, while the other is a farmer.
“We have a portion of land where I work. We grow soybean and jowar there,” she said.
The doctors said that the donors can get back to their normal routine within a month, while the organ recipients could take about two to three months to resume their daily routine. “Nearly 30% of rejected donors can become suitable swap donors. This can reduce the waiting list for the organs considerably,” said chief transplant surgeon Dr. A.S. Soin.
Dr. Soin said that swap surgeries are extremely complex. He said, “We require four operation theatres and a massive infrastructure for the procedure. Also, keeping both the patients stable at the same time is challenging.” Dr. Soin, who is also attached to Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon, had performed India’s first swap liver transplant in 2009 and has conducted procedures on 43 pairs.
Dr. Chetan Bhatt, director of gastroenterology and hepatobiliary sciences at Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital, said both patients were extremely critical. He said, “Even a few days of delay could have proved fatal for Mr. Bhendegiri.”
