Delhi women donate parts of livers to save each other's husband

Two Delhi women gave a fresh lease of life to each other's husbands, who were suffering from "end-stage liver disease", through a swap transplant, doctors said Wednesday.

As part of the swap transplant, the two women gave portions of their livers to each other's husbands, they said.

Both the transplants were performed simultaneously within a span of 12 hours at Max Hospital, Saket.

A "living donor liver transplant" allows a living person to donate a section of their liver, which grows or regenerates to full size in the recipient (and the donor), the doctors said.

"The two patients from Delhi hail from different walks of life. Harminder Singh, and Yogesh Sharma, both 45 years old, had been suffering from end-stage liver disease for more than six months and were in desperate need of a liver transplant in order to survive," the hospital said in a statement.

The wives of Singh and Sharma wanted to become the donors for them but the blood groups of the partners were "mutually incompatible", it said.

According to the statement, Singh's blood group is 'B', his wife Gurdeep Kaur's is 'A'. On the other hand, Sharma's blood group is 'A' and his wife Annu's is 'B'.

"After a detailed medical evaluation, including psychological assessment of both the donors and recipients, the couples were found to be ideal candidates for paired exchanged live donor liver transplants," the hospital said.

There are two ways of sourcing a liver for a transplant -- either from a cadaver or from a close relative, which is a challenge due to the growing concept of nuclear families in urban cities, the statement said.

Both the couples are now under close follow up and are doing well, the hospital said.