First liver transplant at Wockhardt Hospital

Nagpur: For the first time, a liver transplant surgery was held in Wockhardt Hospital here on June 6.

The liver was brought from Wardha by a team led by liver transplant surgeon Dr Anurag Shrimal, in a short span of one hour, thanks to a green corridor created by city police between Wardha and Nagpur.

The surgery lasted for three hours. The recipient's liver transplant surgery was performed under the team headed by Dr Gaurav Gupta, liver transplant surgeon. The donor was a 33-year-old man from Wardha who was declared brain-dead after a severe accident. The donor family was kind enough to save multiple lives with liver, kidney, skin and cornea donations. The recipient patient is a 50-year-old female who was diagnosed of liver disease around two years ago and has been consulting Dr Gupta since then.

After the successful liver transplant, Dr Gupta said, “Organ donation rate in India is 0.5 per million people which is one of the lowest in the world. The western countries are far ahead when it comes to organ donation with Spain leading the chart with 35 per million population.” “Liver transplant is more complicated than other transplant surgeries as the whole organ is removed from the recipient and a part of new liver is attached,” said Dr Shrimal.

Other doctors who assisted in the transplant process are: Dr Anjali Patki, Dr Sourabh Kamat, Dr Swanand Melag, Dr Awantika Jaiswal, Dr Amit Gupte, Dr Atul Somani and Dr Ajay Sakhare.

(Reporting by Akshay Sharma)