CHENNAI: Doctors at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH), along with Rela Hospital in Chrompet, successfully performed a liver transplant on a 51-year-old man from Erode district recently. Up till now, only Government Stanley Medical College Hospital was performing liver transplant surgeries in the state.
Health minister Ma Subramanian, Director of Medical Education Dr R Shantimalar, Rela Hospital chairman Dr Mohammed Rela and other officials visited the patient at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on Monday. Subramanian said the organ was harvested from a brain-dead patient and the recipient was recovering well and is likely to be discharged soon.
The health department also is in the process of performing the next liver transplant in children at the Government Institute of Child Health (GICH), Egmore, apart from developing infrastructure at Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital to perform transplant surgeries.
The liver surgery, which would cost around Rs 35 lakh at a private hospital, was performed free of cost under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme at the RGGGH.
The health department had signed an MoU with Rela Hospital last year for liver transplant surgery in five government hospitals - RGGGH, Government Stanley Medical College Hospital, government medical college hospitals in Coimbatore and Madurai and GICH, Egmore.