In yet another milestone in organ transplantation at the government sector in Kerala, the Government Medical College, Kottayam, conducted its first liver transplant surgery on Monday.
In a surgical process lasting nearly 18 hours, a team of doctors at the hospital transplanted a part of the liver to 40-year-old Suneesh, a native of Velur in Thrissur. The organ was donated by Pravija, his wife. Hospital sources said both the donor and the receiver were recuperating after the surgery and the success of the transplant would be known on completion of the highest risk period.
The surgery, conducted by the Surgical Gastroenterology department, began at 6 a.m. on Monday and lasted till 10.30 p.m. While the first phase that lasted till 5 p.m. involved removing the required portion of the organ from the donor, it took the doctors more than five hours to transplant the same to Mr. Suneesh.
