Image credit : Illustrative image

Coimbatore : A city hospital has claimed to have performed a complex cadaver liver transplant on nine-year old child, the son of a daily wage labourer of a village in nearby Tirupur district.

The boy was admitted to the Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital (KMCH), with two month’s history of jaundice and fluid accumulation in the belly and was detected to have a rare disease (Wilson’s disease) in which the body’s copper gets accumulated in the liver and completely damages it.

He became very sick due to the disease and his jaundice level reached up to 56 mg/dl (normal less than1 mg/dl) and due to this problem, he accumulated toxins in the body which caused severe brain swelling and he went into coma, an hospital release said Saturday.

Since the boy required a very urgent liver transplantation surgery, his parents came forward and ather was chosen to donate a portion of his liver.

However, a suitable brain dead person was available and the family also consented to donate the liver.

A marathon surgery involving teams from KMCH and donor hospital was started, the liver was split into two functional parts on March 21.

One of the split portions of the liver was brought in from the donor hospital within three minutes with help of green corridor provided by the city police and in another seven hour long surgery, the child’s liver was removed and the new liver from the cadaver donor was transplanted successfully by the KMCH liver transplantation team.

The patient was shifted to the pediatric ICU for further recovery and is making good progress, the release said.