Bangalore, May 31st, 2021: BGS Gleneagles Hospital performs two complex transplant surgeries on patients with chronic illness, after a donor’s family agreed to give away his organs to save lives, in the midst of COVID second wave chaos. A 37-year-old middle-aged man was admitted to the hospital due to a prolonged illness and lost his life on April 15th, 2021. During that traumatic phase, his family agreed to donate his organs and gave a new lease of life to two patients. Looking at the immediate availability of the kidneys and liver, two patients, Mr Harikuttan and Mr Prashant (Name changed) who were on the waiting list for many years received a ray of hope to live a normal life. Two teams of doctors including Urology and Nephrology team and the Liver transplant team, created a robust plan to execute both the surgeries, performed simultaneously in the middle of COVID crisis and saved both lives.
Mr Harikuttan, a 61-year-old man from Trivandrum was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and liver tumor about a year back and listed his name for organ transplant. During his admission, the patient was suffering from high BP, abdominal distension and showed severe symptoms of Jaundice. The patient went through several rounds of tests to study the possible complications that can happen during the surgery. Doctors learned that other than the advanced stage of Liver disease, the patient was also suffering from portal vein thrombosis.
Dr Venugopal, Senior Consultant and HOD, Department of HPB and liver transplantation, BGS Gleneagles Hospital: Second wave COVID surge has caused major worry to the patients and shook the healthcare system. The patients listed for organ transplant are vulnerable to suffer from COVID as their immunity is compromised. Even after the availability of the donors in the hospital, many patients listed for transplant are not able to go through the surgery because they turn COVID positive, causing further delay in the treatment.
Liver patients are at high risk for adverse events if they get COVID, hence we have been advising all our liver patients to be careful and listed the preventive methods to follow and avoid COVID infection.
As the patient’s condition was critical and his health was deteriorating, doctors performed the surgery on April 16th, the same day of his admission. Mr Harikuttan’s case was challenging, and to make the surgery a success, the procedure was done with utmost care and precision. During the surgery, along the liver transplant the medical experts replaced his damaged portal vein with a new vein harvested from the donor, so that liver could get good blood supply. The surgery lasted for 9 hours and was performed successfully due to the collaborative effort of the liver transplant team including Dr Venugopal B Pillai, Dr Sunil Shenvi, Dr Pradeep, Dr Pramod. The surgery was also performed with the support of Anesthesia and critical care team including Dr Kuttappa, Dr Arun, Dr Vijay, Dr Ashish, Dr Mahesh.
Simultaneously, on the same day Mr Prashant (Name changed), a 66-year-old man was also going through Kidney transplant as he was suffering from a Chronic Kidney ailment caused by IgA nephropathy for the past few years. He had a history of co-morbidities including diabetes, hypertension and coronary artery disease which made the surgery more challenging. As soon as he was diagnosed with the disease in the year 2015, he was started on maintenance dialysis 3 times a week. He had no living donor option during that time, hence registered for cadaver donor. After the immediate availability of the organs, doctors called in Mr Prashant (Name changed) for the transplant on April 16th, 2021 which lasted for 4 hours.
Dr Narendra S, Senior Consultant, Chief Transplant Surgeon, BGS Gleneagles Hospital: The patient was suffering from chronic kidney ailment for a prolonged period and was immunocompromised. As he was under dialysis for the past few years, Mr Prashant (Name changed) was highly vulnerable for contracting any infection or viruses. The entire surgical and nursing team took all precautionary measures to avoid COVID virus and post-transplant infection, resulting in no complications and immediate recovery.
Ruling out all the complications, the Nephrology Team led by Dr Anil Kumar BT, Senior consultant Nephrologist and Transplant Physician, along with Urology team led by Dr Narendra S, Senior Consultant, Chief Transplant Surgeon, performed the surgery with utmost care and caution.
Sandeep Kumar, CEO, BGS Gleneagles Hospital said: The staff and the medical experts have been very particular about the safety of the patients and the environment. Since the pandemic, constant sanitization, educating the staff and patients have been the priority. I would like to congratulate both the urology-nephrology and the liver transplant team for carefully planning and executing the surgeries and saving two lives during this unprecedented time.
I would also thank the donor’s family for their selfless gesture and giving a new lease of life to two patients who were ill for a long period of time.
After the surgeries both the patients received post- transplant care from the team of nurses. They were provided with appropriate physiotherapy and adequate medication which helped both the patients recover quickly.
About BGS Gleneagles Hospital –
BGS Gleneagles Hospital located at Kengeri, is a state-of-the-art, NABH facility with expertise in multi-disciplinary tertiary specialties. The hospital is one of the largest of its kind in Bengaluru and consists 6 operation theatres, most advanced imaging facilities and a modern Transplant ICU. The hospital caters to several key specialties including Oncology, Neurosurgery, Liver diseases and various others. BGS Gleneagles Hospital caters to several overseas patients from around the world suffering from various disorders such as Liver ailments, Kidney failures, Breast Cancer, Leukaemia, Neurological disorders amongst others.
Gleneagles Hospitals has multi-super specialty hospitals in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Mumbai. The brand is the most preferred hospital group for multi-organ transplants in the Asia region. The parent entity of Gleneagles Hospitals is IHH Healthcare, a leading premium integrated healthcare provider with a network of 84 hospitals and more than 16,000 licensed beds. It is one of the largest healthcare groups in the world by market capitalisation and is listed in the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia and Main Board of SGX-ST. IHH is a leading player in the home markets of Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey and India, and in their key growth markets of China and Hong Kong.
