A five-year-old boy on ventilator was airlifted to Rela Hospital here from Qatar for an emergency liver transplant recently. The Bangladeshi boy, who doctors said would live for only 72-hours, has been saved.
Mohammed was diagnosed with fulminant hepatic failure (a clinical syndrome of acute and severe liver impairment). Tests in Qatar revealed that the liver enzymes, ammonia, and coagulation profile, were drastically deranged but doctors could not ascertain the cause for the rapid and sudden deterioration.
As his condition worsened he was put on ventilator support and medication to stabilise his blood pressure.
With the support of Bangladeshi government and its embassy in India, the boy was transferred to Rela Hospital. Mohammed’s father donated a part of his liver. The paperwork for the transplant, which normally could take over 10 days, was quickened and the transplant was scheduled for the third day of his arrival in the city. The donor liver retrieval was done robotically to enable early recovery of the father. Mohamed Rela, the liver transplant surgeon, performed the procedure for the boy. “He had an uneventful post-operative period and was discharged on the 10th day post-transplant. Both the donor and the recipient remain well,” Dr. Rela said.
