Chennai: Doctors of Dr Rela Institute & Medical Centre in Chennai claimed that they had saved the life of a Sri Lankan professor by mobilising a team of competent surgeons to perform a liver transplant surgery on him, amid strict lockdown restrictions – even as the original donor prospect, who was the patient’s wife, turned out to be medically unfit to donate her organ.
The patient, a 44-year-old professor with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Research, government of Sri Lanka, flew to Chennai with his wife, the donor prospect, his mother-in-law, and brother-in-law by a cargo flight on 4 July, when Covid lockdown was imposed in the State, and the rest of the country.
But a routine CT scan showed the wife to have features of a low-grade tumor arising from the small intestine. This diagnosis made her unsuitable to be a donor. Luckily, the patient’s brother-in-law came forward to be a living liver donor at the last moment. And the nine-hour long transplant surgery was done successfully on 24 September. Post-surgery, both the donor and the patient recovered well.
The hospital also performed a surgery on the professor’s wife to remove the low-grade tumor. The entire family is ready to return to Sri Lanka soon.