Nagpur: For the first time in Central India, pediatric liver transplant surgery was successfully performed by Dr Rahul Saxena, on a 8-year old female child at New Era Hospital Nagpur. Baby GrimshaShambharkarr/o Mohan nagar, Nagpur suddenly developed abdominal swelling, jaundice and altered sensorium and had to be hospitalized at a private hospital.
She was diagnosed to have Wilson’s disease, an inherited condition in which the liver gets affected and stops functioning. Her father Yogendra Shambharkar who is a journalist himself, than contacted Dr Rahul Saxena at New Era Hospital. She was advised urgent liver transplant by the doctor to save her life.
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Wednesday 05 Feb. 2025
Her father agreed to be the donor himself. Since this is a costly procedure, the family was helped by some NGOs who chipped in with grants and donations. Sensing the financial constraints of the family the hospital also reduced their charges.
A slice of the father’s liver was transplanted in Grimshain a 12 hour long surgery on Dusshera night. The surgical team was lead by Dr Rahul Saxena, liver transplant surgeon at New Era Hospital. This entire exercise was coordinated by the directors Dr Anand Sancheti, Dr Nilesh Agarwal and Dr Nidheesh Mishra. Pediatric transplants are technically challenging because of low patient weight and small sized blood vessels and biliary ducts in the children. Dr Saxena and their team had prepared for this surgery on state-of-the-art 3D models of the donor liver.
Hospital’s transplant anesthetists Dr Sahil Bansal and Dr Dinesh Babu successfully maintained the child under anesthesia during the surgery. Postoperatively, she was managed in transplant ICU by hospital’s pediatric team including Dr Swapnil Bhisikar, Dr Vivek Charde, Dr Amol kokasand supported by gastroenterologist Dr Shashank Wanjari.
The donor was discharged after 5 days of surgery and the patient Grimsha is clinically stable and ready to go home. Earlier patients have to go to big metro cities for liver transplants, however since 2018, when Dr Saxena performed the first liver transplant at New Era Hospital Nagpur, his team has done around 30 transplants till date. This has come as a big boon to patients from central part of the India including Vidarbha, MP, Chattisgarh and Telangana.
