Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 17: Apollo Institutes of Transplant has performed more than 3400 liver transplants in patients from over 50 countries of which 345 have been children.
This was informed today by Dr Prathap C Reddy, founder and chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group. He said, “Today is a special day as 20 years ago Soumyadeep Ghosh, a 26 years male underwent liver transplant at the age of 6 years at our Hospital”.
Dr Reddy said the liver transplant was performed at Apollo Hospitals Delhi on October 12, 1999 as Soumyadeep was suffering from Biliary Atresia leading to complications such as yellow urine, stools which were white in colour, jaundice, high levels of Bilirubin.
“Liver transplant in 1999 was unheard of and performing it on a kid as young as six years old was an extremely complicated and risky procedure,” he further said, adding, Soumyadeep is now an accountant and works in Canada and has been leading a healthy life since the transplant happened.
Dr Reddy said that Liver disease is a major cause for concern in the country with as many as 2 lakh people dying from it every year. “While around 1800 liver transplants are done annually, as many as 20,000 people need a liver transplant at any given point. The fact is around 10 lakh people are diagnosed with liver disease every year, making it the 10th most common cause of death in India as per the World Health Organization,” he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director and Senior Pediatric Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “Today, liver transplantation is well established in India. We endeavor to offer our expertise to patients from all over the world who seek liver transplant services. Today we are doing ABO incompatible and combined liver-kidney transplants. We are also operating on babies as small as 4 kilogram”.
Dr Sibal said India has come a long way since the first successful liver transplant at Apollo Delhi in 1998 but there is still a huge gap to be filled. “We at Apollo are committed to making sure that no person dies for want of a transplant,” he added.
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