Wadia Hospital for Children performs its first liver transplantation

A two-year-old boy suffering from a rare condition of liver disease called Progressive Familial Intrahepatic Cholestasis (PFIC-2) successfully undergoes a complex liver transplant surgery at Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital For Children in Mumbai.

The entire Wadia team worked harmoniously and synchronously under the able guidance of CEO Dr Minnie Bodhanwala for Wadia hospital’s first liver transplant surgery.
Prof Darius Mirza, the Chief Transplant Surgeon from Birmingham Children’s Hospital, United Kingdom was the mentor. The core team of Dr Pradnya Bendre and Dr Ira Shah made it possible.

The Vikhroli-based couple Yogesh and Supriya Vaze, working in an IT company, overjoyed after the birth of their son, Nibhish. However, the baby was born with PFIC-2, and had jaundice immediately after the birth. Intractable itching and jaundice were very distressing for the parents. Nibhish was two when his parents were told that he would require liver transplantation.

Dr Ira Shah, Prof & Head Department of Hepatology said, “PFIC-2 is an extremely rare condition that affects one in 50,000-1,00,000 newborns worldwide. The paediatric liver transplant requirement is 1 to 2 per million populations (worldwide). The Indian data is very scarce. In PFIC, there are major defects in the handling of bile acids by the liver, leading to severe jaundice in infancy/early childhood and imminent liver failure in a few years. The only treatment is liver transplant surgery.”

According to Dr Shah in the last one year, he has been admitted to the hospital 4 times in a very critical condition, every time requiring ICU care. "We build up his nutrition to make him fit enough to sustain such a major surgery. His mother wanted to donate a part of her liver but she was diagnosed with uncontrolled Diabetes and was started on treatment and a strict dietary regime."

Dr Pradnya Bendre, Prof & Head of Pediatric Surgery added, “At that time, we asked the father to consider a donation. It was really difficult for the family to make this decision as father was the key person to run around. But, they were determined. Once his father was ready, we got his tests done and found him to be overweight. A strict diet plan with lots of exercises and he was ready for surgery in 2 months.“

On October 16, Nibhish underwent a living donor liver transplant. The surgery took 7 hours for the donor and 8 hours for the recipient.

“Our baby suffered right from his birth. It was a shocking revelation for us when the doctor said that he would require a liver transplant. We were completely unaware of the procedure.

Fortunately, we were in the right hands. A skilled team of doctors with a multidisciplinary approach saved the life of my baby by performing a successful liver transplant surgery. Now, he will be able to improve his quality of life and live it the way he wants to. I thank the doctors for their limitless efforts,” said Yogesh.