Cadaver liver transplant: Recipient's kin pitch for organ donation

Likening the late donor and his family to god, the family of 46-year-old transplantee Madhuri Saha, who received a new lease of life thanks to a cadaveric liver transplant here on Wednesday, urged people to take the "bold step" of furthering cadaveric organ donation.

Bolstering efforts to carry out cadaver organ transplants in West Bengal, a team of doctors at a private hospital here on Tuesday night performed what is possibly eastern India's first such liver transplant in the city.

Family members of a 53-year-old male patient -- Samar Chakraborty -- who was declared brain dead on Monday assented to the procedure to transplant the liver that is expected to bequeath a new lease of life to the female recipient with liver damage.

"I am extremely grateful to the family. I urge the society to take the bold step so that one person can save another's life. A human is for another human after all," Saha's son Indranil said.

Following the necessary tests to validate an adequate match, gastroenterologist Mahesh Goenka and his team undertook a successful harvest and transplant of this vital organ.

As the doctors "wait and watch" before declaring the procedure a long-term success, Saha's mother lamented that Samar couldn't know what a "priceless" deed he had done for their family.

"They are a godsend to us. To me they are my God," Saha's mother said as tears welled up in her eyes.

The liver, the most important solid organ in the body, was transplanted to Saha, a patient with a known case of autoimmune hepatitis, decompensated cirrhosis, ascites, hepatic encephalopathy and hypersplenism by a team of doctors at the Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals.

Chakraborty had a history of diabetes and hypertension, and was suffering from chronic kidney disease. Admitted only recently at a hospital in north Kolkata with Intra Cerebral Haemorrhage, he had gone into a deep coma, suffering irreversible brain damage.

Last month, a 70-year-old brain dead woman here bequeathed a new lease of life to four persons, with her kidneys and cornea successfully transplanted in the city's first multi-organ cadaver donation operation.

--IANS

sgh/bim/vt