Mumbai Hospital Denies Negligence Charges That Led to Liver Donor’s Death

Sindhu Waikar 53, who donated part of her liver to her son, Rahul, 33 died on Sunday. Rahul also died five days later. He never regained consciousness after the surgery. Since transplants began in Mumbai this is the first incident where in a donor has died following a liver transplant operation. Officials and health experts are of the opinion that the country's most affordable liver transplant program at KEM which had begun six months back suffered a setback due to the death of both, the recipient and donor. In Mumbai, liver transplants are done only at KEM, Jaslok and Fortis hospitals. This was the third liver transplant done at KEM. Jaslok and Fortis, with 14 and 4 operations respectively, have a clean slate in terms of donor’s condition.

According to Rahul’s brother, the doctors had explained the risks for the recipient associated with such a surgery. He claimed that the doctors had told them that the donor was just at 1% risk. Post-operative Sindhu was admitted to the ICU for four days and was later shifted to the general ward. The family feels that shifting her to the general ward was a mistake. Dr Kantharia said, "She was walking on her own for a few days. She developed pneumonia and respiratory problems. She was prone to infections due to old age. She was alive for a month after the surgery. Had there been a problem with the surgery, she would have showed symptoms sooner." Tests will be conducted in the gastroenterology post operative ward by the KEM Hospital’s infection committee to check if the 53 year old liver donor died after getting an infection there on Sunday.

During the operation a doctor had donated blood to Rahul. He said, “Rahul surviving the operation was a miracle in itself. He had internal bleeding. We needed more than 67 units of blood bottles and 104 units of platelets. No other hospital could have saved him then.”

Source-Medindia