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Liver Donor Dies After Operation

by Medindia Content Team on Jan 17 2006 5:59 PM

A 39-year-old liver donor of Indian origin has died in Singapore a few days after the operation, and this will be probed by a coroner's inquiry. The donor is reported to have suffered from a heart attack while he was recuperating in Gleneagles Hospital, according to the transplant surgeon K.C. Tan.

The recipient, a 54-year-old woman who got the liver in November, recovered well enough to go home. Tan said the donor was put through a treadmill electrocardiogram and an echocardiogram as part of the screening process to certify him fit as an organ donor.

He fared well in the four days after surgery and was due to leave the intensive care unit when he collapsed. His blood pressure plummeted. A cardiac surgeon performed an emergency operation finding the entire left part of the heart was diseased from a massive attack. But the man died within hours.

‘The final cause of this unfortunate death is still pending, but it does not appear to be related to the surgery in any way,’ a spokesman for the hospital was quoted as saying.

Internationally, there is a 10% risk of complications from donating a part of a liver, doctors said. Risk of death for a donor is less than one in 200.

DPA


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