Goan woman gets liver transplant, Bengaluru hospital raises funds for expensive procedure

PANAJI: A 21-year-old woman from Goa, Sujatha Chowgule, got a new lease of life following a liver transplant at Aster CMI Hospital, Bengaluru that also raised funds for the costly procedure. Chowgule had been suffering from chronic liver disease from age 14, but her condition had deteriorated over the last year.

Gastroenterologist at Victor Hospital, Margao,Dr Jose Filipe Alvares suggested liver transplant, but her family was not in a position to bear the expense of the procedure that ran into lakhs of rupees.

“Sujatha’s liver condition had been steadily deteriorating over the past one year. Though I recommended a liver transplant, her family was not in a financial condition to foot the bill. We then got in touch with Aster CMI, ” Alvares said.

Lead consultant and liver transplant surgeon at Aster CMI hospital, Dr Sonal Asthana examined her during his regular outreach clinic in Goa.

He, too, said that liver transplant was the solution and that she could be helped under Aster CMI’s affordable liver transplant initiative.

No sooner was a matching donor found in her mother Bharati, 47 — she donated the right side of her liver — the transplant was perfromed. Mother and daughter returned to Goa after the successful transplant and have since fully recovered, the hospital’s press statement read.

The hospital supports poor patients needing transplants as part of its corporate social responsibility and raises funds through crowdfunding.

“We come across several patients like Sujatha who are unable to access life-saving surgery due to lack of funds. This is where the affordable liver transplant initiative comes into the picture. It is supported by several charities as well as by crowdfunding and has so far conducted transplants on 102 children and young adults at a cost less than Rs 5 lakh a family,” Asthana said.

The transplant team consisted of Asthana, Dr Rajiv Lochan J, Dr Karthik Raichurkar, Dr Aravind Sheshadri, Dr Naphene N, Dr Mallikarjun Sakpal, Dr Apurva Pande, and Dr V Arun.