Young girl gives new lease of life to her father by donating liver

Visakhapatnam: Twenty-one-year-old Vani has given a new lease of life to her ailing father by donating her liver for transplant.

Both are healthy and stable weeks after the transplant.

A native of Srikakulam district, Vani has donated 55 percent of her liver for her 52-year-old father Neelakanteswara Rao, who suffered from decompensating Cirrhosis of liver or liver failure.

One of the three daughters of Rao, Vani is currently pursuing her graduation in Science.

A team of doctors of Care Hospitals, Vizag performed the 16-hour long surgery to harvest liver from the young girl to save her father from end-stage liver disease.

Liver transplant surgeon Dr Mohamad Nayeem, who came here from Hyderabad for the surgery, said he has so far performed 1,860 liver transplant surgeries.  This case, he said, was more complex as the patient’s kidney function also worsened and he also had jaundice and accumulation of fluid in the abdomen.

“Living donor liver transplantation is a unique and highly complex surgery where 50-60 percent of liver is removed from a donor and implanted into the recipient,” Dr Nayeem said.

“Cadaver liver transplant has a long waiting time. Hence, we explained matters including risk factors to the daughter before starting the surgery,” the surgeon told Deccan Chronicle.

Another surgeon Dr Ravishankar Kinjarapu said that the surgery was performed in October last.

Both daughter and father were put under observation for nearly 60 days. Now, they are back to their routine life and the organsa in both donot and recipient has grown to 90 percent of size, Ravishanakar added.

“An average 1 lakh people suffer from liver ailments every year in India. Of these, 15-20 percent die due to delayed diagnosis. The high incidence is attributed to lack of awareness and annual check-ups by those above 40,” Ravishankar said while adding that another live-donor liver transplant of a Vizag Steel Plant employee is underway now.

The patient Rao has received Rs 10 lakh from AP CM Relief fund for the surgery.

 "I requested the AP government to support my family. CM Jagan Mohan Reddy immediately responded and released the fund of Rs 10 lakh," Rao said.