Kochi (ISJ) ? In a rare feat, doctors at the Kochi-based Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences simultaneously transplanted the small intestine, heart and liver of an accident victim to three different patients. The intestinal transplant was the fourth or fifth in the country so far.
Mini Antony, a car accident victim had bequeathed her organs, which saved the lives of three persons simultaneously. In a seven-hour-long surgery, a team of multi-specialty doctors carried out the transplants on Jan 05 and all the three recipients are recovering well.
The small intestine was transplanted on Ms Seena Shojan, a 37-year-old from Irinjalakkuda in Thrissur district of Kerala. She was suffering from enterocutaneous fistula or intestinal failure, which was a life-threatening situation, according to Dr. G. Ramachandran. It was for the first time, such a transplant has been done in Kerala and she is under observation in the intensive care unit.
In the last six years she underwent multiple small bowel resection surgeries. The normal length of the small bowel is 5-6 meters, and a normal human being requires at least 2 meters of small bowel for survival. Seena had only 96 cm length of small bowel. For the last one month she was in critical stage on total parenteral nutrition. In this condition the only option available was the small bowel transplantation. She is now stable, after the surgery, which took six hours. Though Seena has started taking normal diet, the transplanted small bowel will takes about two months to function normally.
The second beneficiary was 45-year-old Girish from North Parur in Ernakulam district. Girish had an end-stage heart disease and had been on medications and admissions with swelling of limbs and breathlessness for the last three to four years. He received the heart of Mini Antony. The transplant was carried out by a team of doctors led by Dr. Praveen Varma, Head of the Cardio Vascular Thorasis Surgery.
Thirty-year-old Sindhu from Kottayam was the third beneficiary – of liver transplant, from the accident victim. She had been under treatment for serious liver ailment. After the marathon surgery, carried out by Dr. Sudheendran, she is stable now and will be discharged in a couple of days. Dr. Sudheendran has done a record 370 liver transplants ? perhaps the highest by an individual surgeon and the first to do pediatric liver transplant in India.
The organ donation was facilitated by the Kerala Network for Organ Sharing (KNOS), the nodal agency for organ retrieval and sharing promoted by the Kerala government.
Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre (AIMS) has been in the forefront of medial innovation, with the country?s first successful treatment of acute blood cancer or acute myeloid leukemia, rare transplant of pancreas and liver and fetal diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects. AIMS is one of the few hospitals in India, with facility for cadaver hand and larynx (voice box) transplant.
