Chennai: A three-year-old girl underwent liver transplant surgery without blood transfusion at a city hospital recently.
According to doctors, Milana, from Ukraine, was brought to Rela Hospital in a critical condition.
Her family belongs to Jehovah’s Witnesses, followers of a Christian faith that prohibits use of blood or blood products during treatment. The family requested that the surgery be performed without blood transfusion.
Prof Mohamed Rela, chairman, Rela Hospital said, “with liver failure blood does not clot. So during the transplant, we need to transfuse blood and blood products. But in this case, the child was prepared for liver transplant with medication to improve her anemia and later taken for transplant. Meticulous care was taken during surgery to reduce blood loss and we managed to perform the liver transplant successfully without blood transfusion”.