8-month-old girl becomes India's youngest recipient of a liver transplant
India is fast becoming the land of medical miracles. Eight-month-old Akshu’s grim battle with liver failure bore fruit after she underwent a successful liver transplant in a New Delhi hospital, to become the youngest and perhaps the smallest ever such a recipient in India.
The emotional father Anil Kumar who is a jawan in the Army declared, “We had given up on hope. But I don't know how to pay gratitude to the doctors. Only a father can understand that.”
Akshu hospitalized with jaundice and intestinal bleeding
Akshu had been born with a biliary atresia, a condition in which a duct linking the liver to the small intestine is missing.
It affects about one in 12,000 babies across the world.
The little girl was grossly undernourished and weighed only 5 kg when she was admitted into the hospital on September 23.
Due to her liver problem, she was prone to infection, was suffering from severe jaundice and was bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract.
In such cases, parents often give up in despair particularly when the treatment appears out of reach.
However, the doctors at the Army Hospital (R&R) at the Delhi Cantt who have to their credit several successful liver transplants reassured them.
Investigations revealed that the father would be an appropriate liver donor.
According to experts, the removal of a part of the liver poses no harm to a donor because the organ has the capacity to regenerate fully within eight to 12 weeks.
A 9 hour marathon surgical procedure
In a complex procedure, lead surgeon Brigadier Anupam Shah and his team removed a chunk of liver, about the size of an adult human fist from the infant’s father and successfully implanted it into the little girl’s abdomen.
Maj. Gen. P.P. Verma, deputy commandant, R.R. Hospital, stated, “because of her small size, the piece of liver given by her father had to be reduced further during the delicate operation which lasted over nine hours.”
Liver surgeries are generally complicated because the blood supply to all the organs in the abdomen is linked to the liver and there are more chances of bleeding.
However, doctors who gave Akshu a new lease to life are satisfied with the progress being made and have declared the transplant procedure a success.
The father is back at work and the child is responding well. She is recuperating and should be discharged from hospital in a week.
Army Hospital pioneer in donor liver transplants
Lt Gen Naresh Kumar, officiating director general of Armed Forces Medical Services, said, "The liver transplant centre at the army hospital had to its credit 46 successful liver transplants, including seven paediatric liver transplants with 'excellent results.'
This makes the hospital a "pioneer in deceased donor liver transplantation in India", said Kumar.
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