45 year old Agraj was given a new lease of life by the Medanta Transplant Team led by Dr. A.S. Soin, on the World Organ Donation day (13 August) as the family of a patient who was pronounced brain dead volunteered to donate her organs for life-saving transplants.
Agraj was suffering from both liver and kidney failure. Doctors were clear – he would not live long unless he could have both, liver and kidney transplant done at the same time. While his wife was willing to donate a part of her liver, he did not have any suitable kidney donor in the family. He was on the waiting list for nearly 6 months and time was running out.
Explaining the uniqueness of the case, Medanta’s Chief Liver Surgeon Dr. Soin said that as the deceased donor organ donation came through, we decided to perform a unique combination of live donor liver and deceased donor kidney transplants on Agraj. That would enable Agraj’s and 2 other lives to be saved – one with a liver and another with the second kidney of the deceased donor. If we had used both the liver and kidney from the deceased donor (DD), we could have only saved two people.
The operation was a logistic nightmare and a race against time. After being informed at 4.00 pm on 12th Aug, Agraj made a dash for Delhi from Auraiya (UP) on an 8 hour road journey by ambulance. After reaching Delhi, he and his wife underwent certain last minute checks. His blood and the deceased donor’s blood were matched, after which the deceased donor’s organs were harvested. In a combined transplant, the liver is implanted first and then the kidney. This meant that the kidney for Agraj needed to be stored in special preservation solution until his live donor liver had been transplanted. This duration had to be the minimum possible. Surgeons were able to transplant the liver within 6 and a half hours something that usually takes 8-10 hours and then the kidney was subsequently transplanted.
A team of 30 transplant experts including senior doctors – Dr. Vijay Vohra, Dr. Amit Rastogi, Dr. Sanjiv Saigal and Dr. Neeraj Saraf worked tirelessly through the operation and afterwards to make this rare surgery successful.
Medanta Chairman and Managing Director Dr Trehan said both organs worked well in Agraj and he made an excellent recovery. The deceased donor’s liver and kidney were also successfully transplanted into separate recipients the same day. The heart valves were also retrieved and stored, added Dr Trehan.
Dr Soin said that the expertise to transplant both liver and kidney together in the same operation exists in only a few centres. We have successfully performed 30 such procedures. However, Agraj’s combination of a live donor liver and deceased donor kidney transplant was first that demanded rapid and precise surgery, and team work with the highest degree of coordination.
Agraj, his wife and family have all pledged organ donation, and have undertaken to spread this message that saves lives as long as they live.
About Medanta – The Medicity
Medanta – The Medicity is one of India’s largest multi-super specialty institutes located in Gurgaon.. Founded by eminent cardiac surgeon, Dr. Naresh Trehan, the group has been envisioned with the aim of bringing to India the highest standards of medical care along with clinical research, education and training. Medanta is governed under the guiding principles of providing medical services to patients with care, compassion, commitment.
Medanta – The Medicity brings together an outstanding pool of doctors, scientists and clinical researchers. Spread across 43 acres, the institute includes a research center, medical and nursing school. It has 1250 beds and over 350 critical care beds with 45 operation theatres catering to over 20 specialties. The Indore facility is equipped 160 beds and the hospital at Ranchi has 200 beds.
Medanta operates highly synergistically with the expertise of doctors flowing seamlessly across the hospitals, in keeping with Medanta’s commitment to deliver the best. Recently Dr.A.N. Jha, Chairman of the Institute of Neurosciences at Medanta – The Medicity lead a team from Gurgaon to save the life of a very critical patient at Indore. This patient would not have lived if it wasn’t for the superior medical facilities that Medanta brings