CHENNAI: In a significant milestone, the Institute of Surgical Gastroenterology and Liver Transplant Centre at the Government Stanley Medical College Hospital in Chennai performed its 100th cadaveric liver transplant on March 3, becoming the first government healthcare institution in the country to achieve this feat. The recipient of the organ is recovering well, hospitals sources said.
The achievement comes 16 years after Stanley became the first in the government sector in India to successfully transplant a liver into a 43-year-old Chennai woman under the deceased donor programme on January 29, 2009.
The milestone surgery this month was performed by a team led by Dr S Jeswanth, director of the liver transplant institute, and a team of doctors from Rela Hospital. Stanley and Rela Hospital work together on liver transplantations under a memorandum of understanding. The donor was a 49-year-old man, who had been declared brain dead at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
Stanley has led the way in this field in the country’s government sector; the hospital was also the first government facility in the country to attempt a liver transplant back in 1995, although the effort by DR R P Shanmugam, a professor in Surgical Gastroenterology, was unsuccessful.
The 2009 operation was performed by the institute’s former head of Surgical Gastroenterology, Dr R Surendran. The doctor, who was instrumental in establishing the liver transplant centre, recalled the sense of relief and joy he felt as the recipient of the liver, M Sayeed Fathima, opened her eyes the day after the surgery.
‘First successful cadaveric liver transplant was after 15 yrs of toil’
Dr Surendran said, “I can’t express in words how delighted we were to see Fathima open her eyes and speak. It was 15 years of hard work that finally paid off. Though we had been trying to do liver transplants since 1995, it was delayed for years due to various reasons, including a lack of funds.”
The doctor recalled how, along with his fellow surgeons, staff nurses and ward boys stayed awake throughout the night for the procedure at the time, which lasted over 12 hours -- from 11 pm till noon the next day.
“It took a lot of time, but yes, we did it,” he said, adding that the operation was performed at a time when there little in the way of advanced technology available in the government healthcare sector.
Fathima and her family, on the other hand, were unaware of the significance of the surgery.
Now in her sixties, Fathima told TNIE she was astounded when she saw the news being reported extensively by television channels and newspapers.
“I am grateful till date to Dr Surendran and his team for what they did,” she said. Fathima’s donor was a 19-year-old boy, who was declared brain dead at Kumaran Hospital on Poonamallee High Road, following a road accident.
Fathima’s husband M Basheer Ahmed, a painter, said more patients and their families came forward to undergo the surgical procedure after witnessing Fathima’s recovery.
Grateful for his wife’s health, he said, “Organ donation is a noble thing and people should come forward to donate organs to save lives”.
1st one 16 yrs ago
On January 29, 2009, Stanley hospital became the first in the government sector in India to successfully transplant a liver