Mumbai: Donor’s organs give new lease on life to 6 recipients

Representation pic

Amid the festive cheer, a team of more than 20 doctors performed four transplants over 17 hours on Sunday after the kin of a brain-dead woman agreed to donate her organs, bringing smiles to the faces of four families, at Global Hospital. There are six recipients, including at KEM hospital in Parel and at Apollo Hospital in Chennai.

The woman, who was admitted to Global Hospital in Parel on September 6 after suffering from a brain haemorrhage, was declared brain dead on Saturday morning. According to the Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC), her family, when counselled, granted permission to donate her liver, kidneys, heart, lungs and pancreas. Using a green corridor, the lungs were flown to Apollo Hospital, and one of the kidneys went to an end-stage patient in KEM hospital.

Young recipient

The other four patients who got a new lease of life at Global Hospital include a seven-year-old boy. "The boy from Mahad was waiting for a cadaver liver for the past three and a half years. He had progressive liver disease. Unfortunately, we do not have many paediatric cadaver donations. He had to wait for us to find a suitable donor. Luckily, this one was a split liver and we could take him up for the transplant surgery," said Dr Ravi Mohanka, head of liver transplantation, who headed the team for the liver and pancreas transplants.

Four of the recipients of the organs were at Global Hospital, Parel. File pic/Ashish Raje

He said the other part of the liver went to a 31-year-old woman. "Luckily her weight matched the requirement for the other part of the donated liver," said Dr Mohanka. Calling it a unique experience, Dr Pradeep Rao, director and head, Department of Urology, who headed the kidney transplant team said, "We started at 9 am and it went on till late in the night. Our team of doctors and staff worked non-stop and all the patients are doing good. Besides two liver transplants, we had a combined pancreas and kidney transplant surgery for a 34-year-old man who has type 1 diabetes. He had kidney failure. Within hours of the transplant, he was off insulin." The heart went to a 31-year-old man with a viral infection of the heart.

‘Will benefit many'

Dr Shruti Tapiawala, nephrologist and renal transplant physician, said, "It is heartening to see cadaver donations pick up in the city. It will benefit many like the 34-year-old type 1 diabetes patient. He has been on dialysis since January and because of kidney failure and diabetes, his day-to-day work got affected."

With Sunday's cadaver donation, the city has inched closer to last year's total cadaver donation, which was 30. ZTCC informed that because of the pandemic, there was a 69% decline in total cadaver donation in 2020 compared to 2019. In Mumbai, as per ZTCC, 3,325 patients are waiting for a cadaver kidney while 328 are waiting for cadaver liver. The wait list for small bowel is 7, pancreas is 12, heart 28 and lungs is 9. As many as 6 are waiting for both heart and lung transplant and five patients are waiting for a hand.

17
No. of hours the four transplants at Global Hospital took