Pranava K Chaudhary, TNN May 20, 2013, 03.00AM IST
PATNA: Priya, a housewife living in Bengali Tola of the city, now breathes easy. Her young child, Karthikey, is doing well after having undergone a liver transplant even though his blood group didn’t match that of Priya, who donated a part of her liver to save her child. The transplant was done at a Gurgaon-based private hospital last year.
After months of the child’s treatment for jaundice here, Priya last year landed up at AIIMS, New Delhi, with her seven-month-old child. Priya’s brother Rahul Priyadarshi, who himself is a paediatrician, said the family had lost all hope by then.
“Doctors in AIIMS advised us to go for liver transplantation if we wanted to save him. There is no other way for his survival, they told us,” Priya said.
Dr Neelam Mohan, chief paediatric, hematology, and liver transplant physician of a Gurgaon-based private hospital, who treated the toddler, was in the town on Sunday. On this occasion, TOI talked both to Priya and Dr Mohan. The doctor said, “It was a case of Biliary Atresia with liver cirrhosis. The child was of blood group 0+. His mother had the blood group B+, but donated a part of her liver to save him.”
Liver transplants are now possible even with blood group mismatch donors. Lack of a blood group matching donor is no longer is a barrier to liver transplantation. The team of Gurgaon hospital doctors, for the first time, have ushered in an era of successful blood group mismatch transplants in the country with three patients, including one from Patna, already having undergone the operation with the new technique, Dr Mohan said.
Dr A S Soin, who had operated Karthikey, told TOI on phone, “It (the new technique) raises new hope for thousands with organ failure whose donors get rejected due to mismatched donors. The technique can increase the transplant rate in the country by at least 30%.”
“I have donated a part of my liver to my son though my blood group didn’t match his. I have also gone through a lot of precautions. I am happy to see my son healthy,” Priya gushed. Both she and her software professional husband have no regrets for spending lakhs of rupees to save their child.
Comments