Naeem, Living Liver Donor to His Uncle

My name is Naeem Gul, 32, male, from Pakistan. I donated 50% of my liver to my maternal uncle, Muhammad Jave Khalil.

He was a patient of liver cirrhosis, and suffering from it for the last 5 years. His liver had lost functioning and the doctors recommended him to go for liver transplantation. The facility of liver transplantation was not available in Pakistan, so we had to travel to India, our neighbouring country, where we went through a transplant surgery in Apollo Hospital in New Delhi, India. Dr. Subhash Gupta (Liver Transplant Surgeon) conducted the transplant surgery with his team on 23rd March 2010.

My uncle and I had to go through a series of screening tests and scans, after which the doctors agreed to select me as a donor and perform surgery. The surgery started at 8 o’clock in the morning, and it finished at 9 o’clock in the evening. It took almost 13 hours, after which I went through a treatment of 08 days in hospitalization. Afterwards I was allowed to go home.

Now almost a month is completed and I am feeling perfectly all right, although doctors have recommended me to not lift heavy items. Otherwise I am doing well: I can walk and I can eat properly, my medications have finished, and now I am taking proper food without any medicine. My uncle is doing fine also: he can walk and eat properly.

I will ask all of you who read my story that if you get a chance for liver donation, you must go for it. There is nothing difficult and it’s an amazing feeling saving life of a human. I have seen 2 persons die in the hospital because they did not have anyone to donate a liver to them. So I would recommend everyone if they get a chance in life, they should go for it, and the liver grows back to normal in 3 or 4 months time, and we have to take care of ourselves for 3 or 4 months. Afterwards we will be living a normal life.

Regards,

Naeem Gul