KOCHI: For Biju PK, a Karukutty native who suffered from Chronic Liver disease and cancer, liver transplantation was the only ray of hope to hold on to life. Amid the apprehension about results and the fear of the pandemic looming large, things were seeming quite bleak. But life has strange ways of making things work when we least expect it. For Biju, the silver lining came through his wife, Liji Biju, who readily agreed to donate part of her liver for the surgery. They ran tests and found out that her liver is fit for the transplant.
On July 8, Biju underwent successful liver transplantation procedure at Rajagiri Hospital. The transplantation was led by a team of doctors, nurses, and technicians of Rajagiri and Apollo Hospital, Banglore.
According to hospital authorities, the most challenging part of the transplant was ensuring the safety of the patient, the donor, and the team of doctors, nurses, and technicians who were part of the surgery during the ongoing pandemic. Nevertheless, adhering to strict infection control and safety measures, the medical team decided to move forward with the surgery. After what seemed like a long struggle, Biju was discharged on Wednesday.
The surgical procedure involved over 40 medical professionals from multiple disciplines. Biju and his wife underwent strict safety checks and measures before the organ transplantation. On July 7th, Covid tests were conducted on the patient, donor, and the entire medical team. They went ahead with the surgery after the test results were found negative. After the successful transplantation, Biju and his wife were shifted to post-transplant ICU with isolation facility, where they were taken care of by specially trained nurses and a medical team who stayed with them round the clock to ensure that they have no external contact.
The transplant team was led by the medical team from gastro surgery and liver transplantation, including Dr Joseph George, Dr Gasnafar Hussain, Dr John Menachery, and an anesthesia team consisting of Dr Salini Ramakrishnan, Dr Vivek T Menachery and Dr Jayasankar of Rajagiri Hospital and Dr Sanjay Govil and the team from Apollo Hospital, Banglore.
Biju showed signs of the disease in 2017, and tests conducted during that time showed low platelet count in his blood. After a few months, he underwent tests at a hospital in Angamaly again, where the doctor found that his platelet count was continuously going down. For an expert opinion, he was referred to Dr Mopin Paul, of the clinical hematology and hemato oncology department at Rajagiri Hospital. After showing signs of Chronic Liver disease, Biju was further referred to the gastroenterology team involving Dr Rosh Varghese and Dr John Menachery. Furthermore, diagnostic tests revealed that Biju was suffering from Liver cancer and Liver Transplant surgery was the only option as per the medical team's diagnosis.