Indian Transplant Newsletter Vol. 10 Issue NO.: 34 (Nov 2011 - Feb 2012)
Print ISSN 0972 - 1568

Marathon transplant saves three lives

Indian Transplant Newsletter.
Vol. 10 Issue NO.: 34 (Nov 2011 - Feb 2012)
Print ISSN 0972 - 1568
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 Tejasree, Ansa and Anish were three young children suffering from congenital liver disease and required a transplant to survive but none of them had a matching donor. In a rare medical accomplishment, doctors at Gurgaon's Medanta Medicity Hospital conducted a chain of transplant surgeries - swapping the liver of the father of two children and using a recipient's organ for transplant - to save all three children. Twenty-two-month old Ansa and one-year-old Anish, suffered from biliary atresia, the congenital absence of the bile duct, while three-year-old Tejasree suffered from a rare genetic condition called Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD), due to which her body couldn't digest milk or any other protein-rich food. According to Dr. A. S. Soin, Chairman and chief liver transplant surgeon of the Medanta Institute of Liver Transplantation, where the operation was conducted, more than 100 doctors and paramedical staff worked simultaneously in six different operation theatres (OT) to conduct the transplant as any delay would have proved fatal.

“The six liver operations, each linked to another, all at the same time, were a marathon task,” said Soin. Dr. Neelam Mohan, chief pediatric hepatologist at the Medanta Liver Institute, said, “The parents of Tejasree and Ansa readily agreed to swap their liver to save the kids. Tejasree's father's blood group was O positive, while she was B positive. In case of Ansa and her father, it was vice versa. We persuaded both parents to donate for each other's child and they agreed readily. Tejasree's liver was structurally and functionally normal, lacking only in a particular enzyme which is present in the muscles of non-MSUD patients so we used her liver to conduct the transplant in Anish's case. We were able to pull it off and save all three children.”


To cite : Shroff S, Navin S. Marathon transplant saves three lives. Indian Transplant Newsletter Vol. 10 Issue NO.: 34 (Nov 2011 - Feb 2012).
Available at:
https://www.itnnews.co.in/indian-transplant-newsletter/issue34/Marathon-transplant-saves-three-lives-51.htm

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