Hailed as milestone in the medical field across Belagavi and Goa, doctors at the KLES Dr Prabhakar Kore Hospital and MRC Belagavi have successfully performed a liver transplantation on a 19-year-old boy from Haveri.
Noted liver transplant surgeon of international repute, Dr Sonal Asthana of Aster Hospitals of Bangalore, who has performed over 25 transplants for Goan patients, gastroenterologist and liver specialist, Dr Santosh Hajare, Dr Sudarshan Chougule, an ex-student of GMC, and a medical team performed the transplant.
The surgery was performed 10 days ago and patient was discharged on Thursday, fit to lead a normal life.
Following successful heart and kidney transplant surgeries, the KLES team has now opened a new dimension of treatment for patients in the region.
Addressing media persons on Thursday, KLES Chairperson Dr Prabhakar Kore said the concept of organ donation is becoming hugely popular and families are now coming forward to donate organs of their brain-dead near and dear ones.
“Organ transplantation, once restricted to only metro cities, is becoming a reality in tier-two cities. What is more important is that we are performing these surgeries at less then half cost compared to charges by hospitals in metros,” said Dr Kore, while urging people to come forward with organ donation of their brain-dead relatives.
Dr Sonal Asthana said liver transplantation is a very complex and technically demanding surgery performed only at designated Liver Transplant centres by highly trained transplant surgeons and requiring elaborative support teams with surgical time ranging from 12-18 hours.
“More than 50,000 patients require liver transplantation in India per year, but only 800-1000 transplants are performed yearly in only 25 active centres,” said Dr Asthana, while appreciating the multi-organ transplant unit set up at the KLES Hospital.
KLES Medical Director and CEO Dr MV Jali said that patients from the region had to go to metropolitan cities for these treatment at large costs.
“It was the dream of Dr Kore to have a better equipped multi-organ transplant centre at par with the ones on the metro cities, which is now fulfilled,” Dr Jali said.
