String of firsts helps donated liver reach Mum from Wardha

NAGPUR: The organ donation and transplant programme in the city and region seems to have come of age. For the first time, multiple organs from a donor were harvested at the Acharya Vinoba Bhave Rural Hospital (AVBRH) at JN Medical College (JNMC) Sawangi Meghe, Wardha, by city doctors. Then, thanks to timely action by the Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC) Nagpur and ZTCC Mumbai, one of the harvested organs (a liver) was flown to Mumbai and transplanted into a 41-year-old man at Global Hospitals.
At the same time, the first cadaver kidney transplant was performed at AVBRH by doctors from Nagpur on a 28-year-old patient early on Thursday morning.
The exercise which began around 12.30pm on Wednesday at JNMC in Wardha lasted about 20 hours. A green corridor was created from Wardha to Nagpur airport on Thursday morning by Nagpur range IG Ravindra Kadam on the request of ZTCC Nagpur secretary Dr Ravi Wankhede. “I had actually contacted retired ACP Chandrakant Udgikar, who got in touch with the IG,” Dr Wankhede told TOI.
Ankush Sangole, a 28-year-old accident victim from Pulgaon was declared brain-dead at around 12 noon by a team of doctors comprising Dr Sandeep Iratwar, Dr Hemant Deshpande, Dr Shailendra Anjankar and Dr Prasad Ingle. “Somehow, things fell in place very well for the first time. When I told the Sangole family about brain-death and suggested organ donation, the family (mother Sanghmitra and brother Vikas) agreed in just about one hour of counselling. ZTCC Mumbai told me that the liver was allocated to Global Hospitals and the heart to Fortis Hospital. However, somehow the Fortis team couldn’t make it to Wardha,” said Sharmila Parihar, the transplant coordinator from JNMC.
Urosurgeon Dr Sanjay Kolte transplanted one of the kidneys into a 25-year-old patient from Arvi. He said that seeing the first organ (liver) being taken to another city was like a dream come true. “Earlier, in many instances, we couldn’t manage to harvest other organs besides kidney, eyes and skin. This is a real achievement for the entire transplant and ZTCC team in the city. Now, I am waiting when liver and other organ transplants happen in the city,” he said.
The second kidney from the donor went to a patient at Care Hospital in the city as per the wait list. Urosurgeon Dr Ravi Deshmukh and nephrologist Dr Ashwin Khandekar were involved in the transplant. “About 1,500 sq cm of skin was also harvested by plastic surgeons at AVBRH and sent to the Skin Bank at Orange City Hospital and Research Institute,” said Dr Sameer Jahagirdar.
Nephrologist Dr Sameer Chaubey, who had been treating the recipient at Sawangi, was equally elated. “It is a matter of satisfaction not just for the doctors involved in the transplants but for the medical fraternity at large in the city and at Sawangi,” he said.
Dr Prashant Rao and Dr Tahir Shaikh travelled from Mumbai to Nagpur by flight and then by car to Wardha to harvest the liver. Dr Chandrashekhar Mahakalkar, urosurgeon from JNMC, assisted in the procedure. Dr Abhijit Dhale and Dr BM Rajurkar were also involved in the transplant procedure at Sawangi.