Donor dad saves 17-month-old daughter's life by gifting liver

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New Delhi: A 17-month-old baby girl from Raipur has become the youngest child in western India to undergo a liver transplant - from her donor dad - at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai.

Within a month of her birth, the child - identified only as Ashvi - was diagnosed with symptoms of frequent fevers, swollen abdomen and jaundice, which was a complicated liver problem called Biliary Atresia.

This rare disease of the liver and bile ducts occurs in infants when the bile flow from the liver to the gallbladder is blocked, trapping it in the liver and causing quick damage and scarring of liver cells or cirrhosis.

After medication and surgery in Raipur, doctors there suggested an urgent liver transplant for which the family came to Mumbai and met KDAH`s Transplant Hepatologist Saista Amin.

"She was brought suffering from jaundice and swollen abdomen as all bile had accumulated in the liver, thereby endangering it. It took us three months to plan her transplant, identify a liver donor, make nutritionally fit and infection-free," Amin said.

Fortunately, Ashvi`s father proved to be a perfect match and he donated a part of his liver to save his daughter in January, making her the youngest child to have undergone a successful liver transplant in western India, said Vinay Kumaran, head of the KDAH liver transplant surgery team.

He admitted that performing a liver transplant on a 17-month-old child with a weight of just seven kg was a big challenge and she later underwent a neuro-rehab programme for a speedy recovery.

Multiple speciality teams were involved in the surgery, like Paediatric Neurology, Paediatric Cardiology, Transplant Intensivist and Neonatology experts, Kumaran said.

Of the total number of liver transplants carried out at KDAH, nearly 10 percent are paediatric cases, including the youngest, a 30-month-old child in 2016.

(With Agency inputs)