State’s first ‘live’ liver transplant held in Bhopal

BHOPAL: State capital’s first live body liver transplant took place at a private hospital here on Wednesday. The beneficiary and donor are two Bangla nationals who learnt about the facility in the state capital through a CME programme and were referred by a team of doctors from Hyderabad.

The recipient is 41-year-old, while the donor is his 30-year-old cousin. The patient damaged his liver due to hepatitis infection. It later aggravated into liver cirrhosis. They reached New Delhi seeking specialist care and a transplant.

During their visit to New Delhi earlier this year, they attended a CME on organ donation organised by Madhya Pradesh government at Noida. CME involved a leading hospital from across India.
The Bangla patient and his kin interacted with a Hyderabad-based hospital too, and later they were referred to Bhopal’s private hospital. Bhopal is considered a cost effective viable alternative for liver transplant. It costs about Rs 20 lakh for a liver transplant in Bhopal. State capital has had three liver transplants in the last seven months.

The Bangla residents first came to Bhopal for a medical check-up around February. They were deemed suited for the transplant. The duo travelled from Bangladesh to Bhopal and arrived in the city on Wednesday morning.
Sources said the operation started at around 10.30 am. The donor’s operation began first and then the recipient was operated upon an hour. The operation took about 10 hours.

70% of the donor’s liver was cut and surgically put in the recipient body. Experts said that donor’s liver will regrow into its original size in about 6 weeks.