Boy gives a vital vein to mother, as he gets slice of her liver

A liver-patient getting a slice of liver from a donor is no news. But a 10-year-old boy with stunted growth, down with acute liver problem, got part (288 gm) of her mother and gave her a right hepatic vein that was absent.

In this process, he helped his mother correct a hitherto unknown deformity in her liver. He gave a vein that plays a crucial role.

Anatomically she was considered to be unsuitable for donation because of this abnormal condition that could have put her life at risk.

"But we were left with no alternative as the boy had only 36-48 hours for a transplant. Or, he would have been dead by now," Tom Cherian, liver transplant surgeon at Global Hospitals group, said.

Though completed 10 years, the Hepatitis A positive boy looked only four years. The reason for his problem was 'cryptogenic' or obscure.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he said both the mother and kid would grow liver to normal size, or to a size that their bodies required.

"After a review of the options, we have decided to extract the liver from the donor and also implanting into the recipient with minimum risk. Unlike a standard transplant procedure, the right-side liver vein in the boy was used to reconstruct the lower portion of the middle liver vein in mother’s liver graft," he said.

"A normal liver transplant would cost Rs 22-25 lakh. We raised some funds from philanthropists to part fund the surgery," Global Hospitals group chairman K Ravindranath said.

kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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