55 year old Sri Lankan successfully undergoes a liver transplant at Kauvery Hospital Chennai

  • Sister of the individual becomes the donor
  • A transplant resolving both liver failure and Liver cancer

Chennai, 19th April 2022:  Kauvery Hospital Chennai, a unit of Kauvery Group of Hospitals, a leading multispecialty chain of hospitals in Tamil Nadu, successfully performed a liver transplant on a 55 year old man from Sri Lanka.

Mr. Abdul Wahid from Kandy, Srilanka was diagnosed with liver failure and was advised for a liver transplant. A lot of his relatives came forward as donor, and based on tests and multiple evaluations, his younger sister Rifka aged 42, was found to be a suitable donor.

“In a living donor liver transplant, the donor is usually the partner or parent. In this scenario, the individual’s younger sister was the donor. After the transplant, the biopsy report of the damaged liver showed a significant presence of cancer. So this was a surgery which resolved both liver damage and liver cancer,” said Dr Elankumaran K Head of Liver Diseases and Transplant Centre.

In order to aid the family, the surgery was partially funded by Kauvery Hospital. “Considering the current economic crisis in Sri Lanka, this surgery was an additional burden to the family. Through the funding, we supported Mr Abdul in the expenses incurred for the surgery,” added Dr Elankumaran.

“Every year, World Liver Day is observed on April 19th where we aim at spreading awareness on liver diseases and care and we are pleased to share this success story today. Though the transplant was performed for a liver failure, with the expertise and right skills, we were able to detect the tumour which was later found to be cancerous.  I appreciate Dr Elankumaran and team on not only providing a successful transplant but also addressing the cancer which could have been life threatening. We extend our support beyond treatments and we will continue to do so, thus helping people lead a better life,” says Dr Aravindan Selvaraj, Co-Founder and Executive Director Kauvery Hospital Chennai.

The donor Ms Rifka was discharged after 5 days, and Mr Abdul after 8 days. Both the donor and recipient have recovered without any complications.