Nagpur Bureau : For the first time in Central India, Dr Rahul Saxena at New Era Hospital in Nagpur successfully performed a pediatric liver transplant surgery on an 8-year old girl Grimsha Shambharkar. Her father Yogendra Shambharkar, who works as a journalist in the city, saved his daughter’s life by donating her part of his liver.
A resident of Mohan Nagar, Grimsha had suddenly developed an abdominal swelling, jaundice and altered sensorium and had to be hospitalised at a private hospital. She was diagnosed with life-threatening Wilson’s disease, an inherited condition, in which the liver gets affected and stops functioning. Yogendra then contacted Dr Rahul Saxena at New Era Hospital. She was advised urgent liver transplant by the doctor to save her life.
Her father agreed to be the donor himself. Since this is a costly procedure, the family was helped by some NGOs who chipped in with grants and donations. Sensing the financial constraints of the family, the hospital also reduced their charges. A slice of the father’s liver was transplanted in Grimsha in a 12-hour-long surgery on Dusshera night. The surgical team was lead by Dr. Rahul Saxena, liver transplant surgeon at New Era Hospital.The directors Dr Anand Sancheti, Dr. Nilesh Agarwal and Dr. Nidheesh Mishra coordinated this entire exercise.
Paediatric transplants are technically challenging because of low patient w eight, small sized blood vessels and biliary ducts in children. Dr. Saxena, along with his team, had prepared for this surgery on state-of-the-art 3D models of the donor liver. Transplant anaesthetists Dr. Sahil Bansal and Dr. Dinesh Babu successfully maintained the child under anaesthesia during the surgery. Postoperatively, she was managed in transplant ICU by hospital’s paediatric team including Dr. Swapnil Bhisikar, Dr. Vivek Charde, Dr. Amol Kokas and support from gastroenterologist Dr. Shashank Wanjari.
While the donor Yogendra was discharged after five days of surgery, Grimsha herself is clinically stable and now she is ready to go home. Earlier patients had to go to big metro cities for liver transplants. However, since 2018, since Dr. Saxena performed the first liver transplant at New Era Hospital Nagpur, his team has so far performed around 30 transplants till date.
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