CHENNAI: AN eight-month-old child, whose serious liver ailment pushed her parents into despair, finally saw a ray of hope after a private hospital in the city offered to undertake liver transplant free of cost.
The baby girl, J Gyana Sai from Mulakalacheruvu Mandal in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, was brought here on Monday to undergo the surgery at Global Health City on the city’s outskirts.
Her father J Ramanappa had filed a petition seeking mercy killing before the Tamballapalli court. Learning about this, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the cost of treatment would be borne by the government from the CM’s Relief Fund. Later, Global Health City chairman and managing director Dr K Ravindranath assured transplant for free.
At the hospital, the child was assessed to be fit to undergo surgery. Both the parents have come forward to donate liver. “We will take it from the suitable one. The transplant will be performed after two weeks,” said Naresh Shanmugam, paediatric liver specialist at the hospital.
Gyana Sai is suffering from congenital biliary atresia, a rare liver disease that requires liver transplant. One in 10,000 children will have the problem. After the transplant, the child will have 95 per cent chance of survival, said the doctor.