SoBo businessman helps KEM restart liver transplants
KEM hospital restarts liver transplant services with new ICU thanks to a businessman's donation. 23 patients listed for transplants.
Nearly 14 years after its first attempt to transplant a live liver failed following the deaths of both recipient and donor, KEM hospital in Parel last week restarted its services, with a dedicated intensive care unit (ICU) to tackle after-surgery infections.
The credit for this achievement goes to a Walkeshwar-based businessman, who made a ₹1.25 crore donation that helped the civic-run hospital to buy the necessary equipment to get the six-bed ICU up and running.
Though the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had floated a tender to purchase the equipment, it would have taken at least a few months, officials from the hospital said.
“We inaugurated the liver transplant ICU last week. It was possible with the combined efforts of the BMC, who helped us with the civil work, and Manubhai Gandhi, who donated ₹1.25 crore to help buy the equipment to run the ICU. The ICU is on par with the facility at any other corporate hospital in the city,” Dr Sangeeta Rawat, dean of the hospital, said.
At present, the gastroenterology department has 23 patients listed for liver transplants out of whom six are ready to be taken up for the surgery via cadaver donations and two for live liver transplants - where a part of the liver is donated by a relative. The remaining 15 patients are completing documentation and tests, a doctor said.
Vijay Doshi, Manubhai’s nephew, who was instrumental in coordinating and donating the equipment, said, “I have been associated with the hospital for a while. During one of the discussions a few months ago, I came to know that the gastroenterology department is planning to have a liver transplant ICU and the purchase of the equipment is taking time. They asked if there was any donor and I approached Manubhai, my maternal uncle.”
Doshi said Manubhai readily agreed to donate after which he along with a team of doctors made a list of equipment, approached the dealer, bargained, and made the purchase.
Dr Akash Shukla, the gastroenterologist who will be in-charge of the ICU, said among the important equipment bought was a machine worth ₹30 lakh for continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). “CRRT machines are useful for the management of acute liver failure patients who may have kidney problems during the transplant or after the procedure. Corporate hospitals have it. We now have it too.”
In liver transplants, Dr Shukla said, both pre- and post-transplant care is important in which the ICU care for 48-72 hours after the surgery is crucial. “They are at a high risk of infections and cannot be kept in general ward or in other ICUs with general patients. We have kept a dedicated nurse for each patient.”
KEM hospital, one of the city’s largest public hospitals, started its liver transplant programme in July 2010. But four months later, in November, the hospital had to stop the services after its first attempt as both recipient and donor allegedly died of after-surgery infection. The hospital then decided to do only cadaver liver transplants, but till 2014 it had managed to do just one. It again restarted cadaver liver transplants in 2016, but the programme was stopped during the pandemic.
The cost of a liver transplant is ₹25 lakh in a private hospital while it can be done for ₹5- ₹10 lakh at KEM.