India: Is liver donation as simple as blood donation? Donors say so.

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Liver transplant is normal, say donors
G. VENKATARAMANA RAO

Is liver donation as simple as blood donation? Liver donors say that they had no problem in helping those close to them and want others to follow them.

Engineering student Mani Keerthi had a severe attack of jaundice and her liver stopped functioning. Eighty per cent of patients who have acute liver failure like Ms. Keerthi die. Liver transplantation was the only chance of her surviving. Her mother came forward to donate a part of her liver. The operation was done in Global Hospitals at Hyderabad. Three years have passed and Ms. Keerthi and her mother are leading normal lives and the youngster is pursuing her education again. The mother of another engineering student V. Sarat Chandra donated her liver to her son. Both of them are leading normal lives.

The donor for ex-serviceman M. Venkateswara Rao was not his mother, but his son. “I was reluctant to go for liver transplantation because I was afraid of my son’s health. But my son gave me courage after searching on Internet. He pacified me saying that liver donation like blood donation,” Mr. Rao added.

All the organ recipients said that they were glad today because they took the decision to go for a liver transplantation. The organ recipients and the donors, most of whom were relatives, from Vijayawada area were brought together by the Global Hospitals Group for an interaction with the media to promote awareness on Liver Transplantation as the World Liver Week Programme on Thursday.

Global Hospitals chairman and managing director K. Ravindranath said that the group with units in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai had done 600 liver transplantations, but the unit in Hyderabad had done 50 per cent of the procedures and many of the patients were from Vijayawada. He said the group was doing the highly complex liver transplantations with a 90 per cent success rate in adults and 95 per cent success rate in children. Liver transplantation section head Thomas Cherian said 300 transplants were an important milestone as it highlighted the huge experience of the centre. He said there was a 70 to 80 per cent chance of death once the liver stops functioning. But with transplantation the chances of the patient’s survival shoot up to 80 per cent. He said there were several myths about liver transplantation and this interaction was arranged to clear them.

Senior Hepatologist Dharmesh Kapoor said that the hospital was providing a 10-year follow-up care for liver transplantation patients.