HCG Hospitals, organized a press conference on treating 36 year old Indian from USA, diagnosed with liver cirrhosis, underwent marathon 16 hour liver transplant surgery, with the organ donated from his wife.

A year ago, the patient had weakness and loss of appetite. During his routine health check-ups, he was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis, due to autoimmune hepatitis. After further investigations he was placed on the Liver Transplant waiting list in USA. With time running out, he did not get any organ offers and returned to India, for the liver transplant surgery.

Dr. Basant Mahadevappa, Consultant, Liver Transplant Surgeon, HCG Hospitals, said, “The patient was in a difficult situation, as he was decompensated with severe ascites (Liquid in the abdomen). His wife was worked up for donation. Anatomy of the donor was complicated, and was left with no other donor. With a multi-disciplinary team approach we took up the challenge and performed the transplantation. The patient & the donor are doing well and are on regular follow up.”

Dr. Ganesh Bhat, Consultant, Gastroenterologist, HCG Hospitals, “The incidence of liver disease is on the rise and 2% to 3% of the people are living with Hepatitis B & Hepatitis C. People diagnosed with hepatitis B, are more likely to develop into liver cancer. Most of the times, its asymptomatic and when the patients start to see the see the symptoms, it’s in an advanced stage, which may require liver transplantation or a liver surgery. Early diagnosis of the disease helps in better medical outcomes.”

Mr. Arun Kumar, Recipient, said, “I was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis, and the only medical solution was Liver Transplant. With my condition worsening & surgery being an emergency I was lucky to find a donor in my wife. She came forward to donate her liver, though it was high risk surgery. I have recovered and got a new lease of life.”

source: http://www.moneylife.com / MoneyLife / Home / Bangalore, Karnataka, India / Business Wire India / November 27th, 2013