Complex heart, liver and kidney transplants performed in three-days at NIMS

Hyderabad: In a span of just three-days between October 7 and 10, the transplant surgeons at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) have successfully conducted three complex organ transplants including heart, liver and kidney on needy patients for free of cost.

All the three organ transplants, which are very expensive procedures in private hospitals, have been successful, with hospital authorities discharging the recipients recently. Roughly, the three cadaver organ transplants would have cost anywhere between Rs 75 lakh and Rs. 80 lakh in private hospitals.

On October 7, the cardiothoracic (CT) surgeons at NIMS led by Dr Amaresh Rao Malempati performed cadaveric heart transplant on a 57- year-old-male patient who was suffering from ischemic cardiomyopathy, a medical condition wherein heart is not able to pump blood properly.

The donor heart was retrieved from a 27-year-old male, who was declared as brain dead at a private hospital following a road traffic accident and the organ was transported to NIMS, as part of the Jeevandan organ donation initiative. The costly surgery was done free of cost for the patient under RTC.

Three-days later, on October 10, a team of surgeons led by Dr.Bheerappa Nagari, Head, Surgical Gastroenterology and Liver Transplantation, NIMS, performed cadaver liver transplant on a 27 year-old woman, who was suffering from liver cirrhosis due to AutoImmune Hepatitis and was under regular treatment since 2010 at NIMS.

“She was on multiple medications for her condition and suffered from various complications secondary to liver failure for which she was listed under Jeevandan cadaver transplantation programme in October 2020,” Dr Bheerappa said.

The donor in this case was a 45-year-old woman from Siddipet, who met with a road traffic accident on October 3, was shifted to NIMS from a nearby hospital for further management. She was declared brain dead at NIMS on October 10. The relatives of the brain dead patient had consented to donate kidneys and liver, which were retrieved and allocated to patients at NIMS.

“Post liver transplantation the patient is recovering well and is shifted from intensive care to ward. Generally, this procedure costs approximately 30lakhs to 40 lakhs at private hospitals, which was done free of cost at NIMS under the Aarogyasri scheme,” Dr Bheerappa said.

Apart from Dr Bheerappa, the liver transplant team consisted of Dr Venu Madhav Thumma, Dr Padmaja ,Dr Indira,Dr Shibani and Dr Nirmala (Anaesthesiology) and Dr Sukanya (Hepatology).

On the same day, i.e. October 10, the kidneys were retrieved by Dr. Ch.Ram Reddy, Dr Rahul Devraj , Dr. Charan and Dr. Dheeraj from NIMS Urology department performed renal transplant on a 42-year-old patient who was suffering from end stage renal disease and was under regular treatment in NIMS and undergoing dialysis since 2018 .