Author's Previous Patients
Landmark operations and some firsts to the author's credit - patients'
experiences
In Liver Transplantation in India, the author has the following
firsts to his credit as the Chief Surgeon assisted by other members
of the team:
First successful brother to sister
transplant
"Brother's gift of life saves
sister at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital "
It was a fine and fortuitous blend of a surgeon's skill,
brother's generosity...
Swati who was troubled with repeated attacks of jaundice
for about 4 years, was diagnosed to be suffering from advanced liver
cirrhosis due to Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis. As her attacks
of jaundice became more frequent and severe, she was forced to discontinue
her job as a high school mathematics teacher. Her condition deteriorated
quite rapidly and she needed 4 hospitalisations at Mumbai and another
3 at Delhi within a space of 6 months. She steadily lost 25 kg of
weight and started needing medical attention every few days. She
was finally told by the doctors In Mumbai and abroad (whom her husband
Milind contacted) that her only chance of survival was a liver transplant.
She was finally asked to see the author by a family friend who is
himself a well-known liver transplant surgeon in USA. After waiting
for 4 months for a cadveric organ, the family could no longer bear
to see her state and both the brother Manish and her Uncle volunteered
to donate their half livers. As Manish was the more suitable donor,
the author and his team at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital performed another
first - a brother to sister liver transplant. Postoperatively, both
Manish (donor) and Swati (recipient) recovered uneventfullyand were
discharged home 9 and 15 days after the transplant. Now over a year
after the operation, both are completely well and leading normal
lives. While Manish packs in a 5 km run in his usual day, Swati's
average day stretches to 14-16 hours and her nearly terminal state
pre-transplant is now a distant haze.
Swati on holiday with her family a year after her
transplant. Her brother had donated half his liver.
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First successful long distance cadaveric liver transplant
A calamity struck the happy family of Shouries'
when they discovered that Dr. V.K. Shourie, a dental surgeon, was
suffering from end-stage liver failure which could only be cured
with a liver transplant. His wife, also a dental surgeon, left no
stone unturned in trying to explore the possibilities both abroad
and in India, of a saving her husband's life with a transplant.
She ultimately e-mailed the author her husband's reports and got
the same opinion - that he needed an early transplant. Barely few
weeks after the initial contact, the author was informed of a possible
suitable donor in Chennai. He immediately rang the Shouries around
2am in the night! They made a quick decision to chance going to
a team they had never actually met for a life-saving transplant!
They took the 6 am flight to Delhi. The author's colleague who was
on holiday in Bangalore, flew to Chennai to get the liver. Meanwhile
the author performed some last minute tests and started the operation
in Delhi as soon as he heard about the donor liver being good. The
liver arrived and the author transplanted it into Dr Shourie, thus
completing a landmark operation in which for the first time, a liver
retrieved in another city (Chennai), was successfully transplanted
into a patient (from yet another city-Mumbai!) in Delhi. Dr. Shourie
is completely well and actively working nearly 4 years after his
transplant.
Dr. Vinay and Dr.(Mrs.) Shourie four years after
the transplant
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First successful combined liver
and kidney transplant in India
4 years ago, this 62 year old gentleman from UAE was
in terminal liver failure. His condition was further complicated
by deteriorating kidney function. In a last ditch attempt to find
a solution to his problem, his son sent a desperate fax to the author
asking for a transplant. He was asked to come to Delhi immediately
for evaluation for a combined liver and kidney transplant. He arrived
in very poor shape with two organ failure. Odds were against him
since no combined transplant had been previously done in India,
and besides, the cadaveric donor situation was dismal in the country.
However, within as little as 3 days of his arrival, mother luck
smiled at him and a suitable blood group matched donor became who
donated both kidneys and the liver. The author and his team performed
a combined liver and kidney transplant and the patient made a remarkable
recovery with excellent function of both transplanted organs. He
was fit enough to be discharged after 26 days in hospital. He was
taken directly to the airport from the hospital and flown back to
UAE where he had a tearful and happy reunion with his large family.
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