Liver Transplantation Serves as a Boon for 6 Children Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic and its consequent lockdown brought everything to a stand-still with the entire world’s healthcare resources focused on beating the deadly coronavirus. This resulted in very limited organ transplants in Bangalore city being conducted due to the pandemic.

However, amidst this unfavorable situation, the Integrated Liver Care team at Aster RV Hospital went an extra mile (along with the team’s support, guidance and assurance, hospital subsidy towards the transplant, corporate social responsibility funding from industry and crowdfunding) to ensure that 6 children, who had no waiting option for their life-saving liver transplants, had received it 100% successfully.

Adult to Child Living Donor Liver Transplantation
Adult to child liver transplantation refers to removing a small segment of liver from an adult and transplanting this segment into a child.

‘Amidst the unfavorable situation of the pandemic, the Integrated Liver Care team at Aster RV Hospital went an extra mile (along with the team’s support, guidance and assurance, hospital subsidy towards the transplant, corporate social responsibility funding from industry, and crowdfunding) to ensure that 6 children, who had no waiting option for their life-saving liver transplants, had received it 100% successfully. Countless families have been saved by this noble initiative by the team. ’

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The six children were suffering from end-stage liver disease and belonged between the age group of 3-10 years and. CSR to a tune of 20 lakhs, hospital subsidy to a total of 25 lakhs, and a cumulative amount of 75 Lakhs was raised through crowdfunding efforts to help support these 6 families.

“We call this model our Affordable Liver Transplant programme. Limited scope of travel, unavailability of deceased donor organ donations since the start of the pandemic and logistical challenges with respect to the arrangement of funds were some of the factors which made it difficult for patients to undergo critical organ transplantation surgeries. For patients afflicted with liver disease or acute liver issues, delaying a transplant can have a direct impact on their life expectancy and is very risky. However we had to balance the risk of the COVID -19 infection with the benefit of the treatment and this involved complex logistics which the team was able to organize,” Dr. Rajiv Lochan, Lead Consultant – HPB and Transplant Surgeon, Aster RV Hospital.

Transplant Challenges during the Pandemic

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The start of the pandemic had contributed to a significant drop in organ donation and transplantation as all the hospital ICUs were fully occupied along with regulatory changes also that affected organ donation. Organ transplants of the liver, heart, or lungs leave no waiting options to patients as compared to kidney-related complications where people have the option of depending on a dialysis machine.

During these difficult times, the onus is on the healthcare providers to accommodate as many critical patients as possible, while maintaining all COVID-19 protocols and also ensuring that other standard operating processes of the organ transplantation process are being strictly adhered to.

The team state that option of living donor transplants greatly helped them perform these emergency surgeries for the little children, thereby making their affordable liver transplant model an innovative means of ensuring life-saving transplantations.

One of the most challenging treatments of modern medicine is the ability to offer living donor liver transplants in children. Thus a synergistic multidisciplinary approach is required for the complex physiology of children, the technical challenges of the operation, and the care of the living liver donor for the best outcome.

“The liver is a crucial organ that manages multiple functions in the body, including waste management, metabolism, healing, blood clotting etc. When the liver function is affected by disease, it can lead to severe symptoms such as jaundice, abdominal pain, tremors, swelling in the legs, confusion, mood changes, etc. which can affect the child’s growth and is very difficult for the child to cope with,” says Dr. Chetan Ginigeri, Lead Paediatric Intensivist, Aster Hospitals Bangalore.

Countless families have been saved by the Integrated Liver Care team at Aster that has conducted more than 98 pediatric liver transplants and more than 500 adult liver transplants since its inception.

Source-Medindia