New Delhi/ Gurugram: It was giant leap of faith by Artemis Hospital in Gurugram. It made bold to undertake a liver transplant in a 5-year-old Zimbabwean boy, the kind of which is unprecedented in India. The chances of him returning alive after the surgery were so miniscule that success speaks a volume about quality of the team which undertook this perilous surgery.
The hospital in a press conference today (April 18) claimed to create a history of sort in Liver Transplant. It is a fact that odds were stacked against chances of his survival after transplant. The survival chances of 5-year-old Zimbabwean boy was meagre 33 percent. But the hospital team took the chances and voila! The boy gasping for oxygen and encumbered ever by cylinder of oxygen got a new lease of life. The fact that no donor death, which speaks very badly of any hospital’s liver transplant team, has ever happened during liver transplants so far also makes this hospital a cut above the rest among credible liver transplant centers in India.
The kind of hazardous liver transplant the highly skilled transplant team in Artemis Hospital undertook is a rarity they claimed. The Artemis team detailed about the other renowned liver transplant centers’ record in such cases in India and asserted that it is first of its kind liver transplant to the best of their knowledge.
Leon Tadiswa was in a very precarious medical condition. Oxygen was bypassing the five-year old’s lung. As a result, his heart was able to oxygenate only one third of the blood it was pumping. Think of the boy’s torture who had to carry an oxygen cylinder with him all the time while walking, sleeping, eating, using the washroom or even having food. Tadiswa, the son of a school teacher, has now turned a new leaf who earlier showed symptoms like recurrent chest infection, pneumonia, difficulty in breathing, weight loss, and jaundice.
In October 2021, he was diagnosed with an uncommon condition called hepatopulmonary syndrome that affects the lungs of those with advanced liver disease. The doctors found that the child was suffering from liver cirrhosis and elevated pressure in the vein that leads to the liver (portal hypertension).
Tadiswa remained confined and restricted within the bounds of this house as he needed 10 liters of oxygen to be supplied to him every minute of the day or night. As soon as Covid restrictions on international travel were lifted, the child’s parents rushed him to Artemis Hospital in Gurugram for a viable treatment.
Team which made this one of the most difficult and complicated liver transplants comprised of Dr. Giriraj Bora, Chief – Liver Transplant & Sr. Consultant – GI & HPB Surgery, Dr. Prabhat Maheshwari, Chief – Neonatal & Paediatric Critical Care; Dr. Sakshi Karkra, Head – Pediatric Gastroenterology & Hepatology; Dr. Shyam Sunder Mahansaria, Sr. Consultant – Liver Transplant & Gastrointestinal Surgery; and Dr. Rajesh Mishra, Chairperson – Anaesthesia.
According to Dr. Bora, the team leader, ‘On examination, we found that it was a case of very high level of oxygen bypass. The child’s shunt fraction (the percentage of blood pumped out by the heart that is not oxygenated) was 67%. This means that only one-third of the blood pumped by his heart was carrying oxygen. Such poor figure of blood oxygenation has not been recorded in India before. Liver transplant was the only option to save the child’s life.’
Upon arrival of the patient, the doctors decided to use a special ventilator for delivering nitric oxide to prevent further fall in oxygen levels in the child’s blood. The expense for this came to Rs 1 lakh per day, which the family was unable to afford. The Artemis Hospital management graciously stepped in and supported the family financially on humanitarian grounds for entire duration of 14 days when the child needed to be administered the gas to stabilize and maintain his oxygen levels. The liver was donated by the child’s 53-year-old maternal uncle.
Dr. Bora further added, ‘When the patient visited us for initial checkup, he needed to be administered 10 liters of oxygen every minute to survive. After the transplant, he is now completely off the oxygen cylinder, and is breathing naturally. and effortlessly Leon can now lead a normal life like any other kid of his age. He will remain on drugs to suppresses his immune system and prevent rejection of the liver by his body, but the dose will decrease over time. The child was in our hospital for just 26 days, but his life has got transformed now.”
Said child’s mother, ‘Nyasha Mhandu: “My life turned upside down when my child was diagnosed with such a serious disease. I had lost all hope and couldn’t sleep. I still cannot believe that Leon is breathing on his own now. I thank the doctors of Artemis Hospital from the bottom of my heart for giving a new lease of life to my son. I look forward to watching him grow up into a smart young man.’
