Transplant team Transplants 3 liver & a kidney back to back in less than 2 days

• The stupendous effort involved seven surgeries

• Apollo Liver transplant team has unprecedented outcomes with a success rate of 97% for all liver transplants & 100% for living donor liver transplantations

Hyderabad, November 6, 2014: A Team of Doctors at Apollo Health City, Hyderabad, successfully performed three highly demanding and complex liver transplants and a kidney transplant, involving a mammoth endeavor of seven surgeries across two cities in less than 40 hours, on four terminally ill end stage patients in October, 2014. The patients have since recovered. This was announced at a Press Conference by Dr. Hari Prasad, CEO – Central Region, Apollo Hospitals and Dr. Manish C Varma, Liver Transplant Surgeon, Apollo Health City, on Thursday.

The patients, 44 years old Ketan Ramesh Patel from Gujarat; USA based 47 year old Mahendra Kumar Kar, though originally from Orissa and Dynandev Warule, 52 year old from Maharashtra were critically ill and were desperately awaiting liver transplants, the first two had cadaver livers’ transplanted, while Dynandev Warule got liver from his son. They placed their utmost trust in the highly experienced Liver transplant team at Apollo Health City, Hyderabad, led by Dr Varma, which clocked an overall success rate of 97% for all liver transplants and 100% for Living Donor liver transplantations, a feat not many hospitals in the world can match.

Ketan Ramesh Patel was critically ill for over six months when he came to us, requiring repeated admissions to the hospital. In the interim period he also developed a bout of serious blood stream infection with fungus, requiring the multispecialty expertise of the hospital to get him rid of it. He was also considering undergoing a blood group mismatched transplant from a part liver to be donated by his wife as a desperate measure to save his life. He was lucky to receive an organ from a brain dead person just in the nick of time.

Mahendra Kumar Kar was diagnosed with jaundice and end stage liver disease about 4 months back and was advised to undergo liver transplantation in USA. However, he preferred to get it done in India and at Apollo Health City, Hyderabad, after weighing various options. He was fortunate to get a liver from a brain dead patient in Vizag, with the coordination of Jeevandan. Retrieving the liver from the brain dead donor and transporting it by a commercial flight was a medical and logistical challenge for the team, requiring minute planning, precise timing and an experienced team of coordinators to carry out the endeavour to a successful conclusion.

Dnyandev Warule, a farmer from Maharashtra, was diagnosed with Liver disease when he got hospitalized with infection about 6 months back. His bad liver also started to affect his kidneys and repeated infections and hospital admissions prompted his engineer son, Suresh Warule, to donate a part of his liver to his father.

The kidney transplant was performed on 43 year old software engineer, Kareemullah Khan, suffering from long standing renal failure. He is a known patient of diabetes and hypertension for the past eight years and was on dialysis for the last three years. He is now off dialysis and will join work and lead a normal life in two months time. Apollo Health City, Hyderabad on an average does 100 kidney transplants a year with a success rate of more than 95%.

The team of specialists involved in the marathon liver transplant surgeries included Dr. Anand Khakhar; Dr. Manish Varma; Dr. Anand Ramamurthy; Dr. Mahesh Gopasetty; Dr. K. Rajasekhar; Dr. Sanath Reddy; Dr. Dinesh Babu; Dr. Bipin Vibhute, Dr. Vasanth Roopan and Dr. Rajeev Sinha. The team of Dr. Somasekhar, Consultant Nephrologist; Dr. Subramanyam, Consultant Urologist and Dr. Sanath Reddy, Consultant Anaesthetist, performed the Kidney Transplant. Mr. Girish Shetty and Mr. Sandeep were the Transplant coordinators.

Speaking on the occasion Dr Hari Prasad said, a commendable effort of this magnitude is rare in the annals of medical history and the Liver transplant team led by Dr Manish Varma at the Apollo Health city, deserves kudos. The organ transplant team has been incessantly working towards our Chairman, Dr. Prathap Reddy’s dream of reaching out to the suffering end stage patients, providing succor through organ transplants and making a difference to their lives. A patient from USA preferring to get treated by this team despite the option of getting the best medical help back there, speaks volumes about the team’s expertise and is a true testimony to their professional ability, says Dr Prasad.

According to Dr. Manish Varma, Liver transplantation is one of the most complex and demanding organ transplantations, performing three such transplants involving six surgeries across two cities in less than two days time is nothing short of a miracle, but a combination of highly experienced liver transplant specialists, world-class infrastructure and professional support team at the Apollo Health City, made this possible. The stupendous outcomes of the liver transplant program at the hospital is in itself a benchmark unreplicable for most reputed institutions in the world, he added.

Apollo Hospitals Group is the flag-bearer in liver transplantation in the country. It has the largest liver transplant programme in this part of the world. The Centre for Liver Disease and Transplantation at Apollo Health City, Hyderabad is the fastest growing liver transplant program with results on par with the best liver centers in the world. The centre specializes in both, living donor liver transplant and cadaveric liver transplants. The liver transplant team at Apollo Health City is multidisciplinary team of experts trained at pioneer centers like Harvard, Pittsburgh, Duke’s, and Kings College. The superlative patient outcomes speak of the dedicated team and excellent infrastructure.

About Apollo Hospitals: It was in 1983, that Dr. Prathap Reddy made a pioneering endeavour by launching India’s first corporate hospital – Apollo Hospital in Chennai. Now, as Asia largest and most trusted healthcare group, its presence includes 8,488 beds across 51 Hospitals, 1,586 Pharmacies, 92 Primary Care and Diagnostic Clinics, 100 Telemedicine units across 10 countries. Health Insurance services, Global Projects Consultancy, 15 colleges of Nursing and Hospital Management and a Research Foundation with a focus on global Clinical Trials, epidemiological studies, stem cell & genetic research and the first Proton Therapy Centre across Asia, Africa and Australia.

In a rare honour, the Government of India issued a commemorative stamp in recognition of Apollo’s contribution, the first for a healthcare organization. Apollo Hospitals Chairman, Dr. Prathap C Reddy, was conferred with the prestigious Padma Vibhushan in 2010. For more than 28 years, the Apollo Hospitals Group has continuously excelled and maintained leadership in medical innovation, world-class clinical services and cutting-edge technology. Our hospitals are consistently ranked amongst the best hospitals globally for advanced medical services and research.