A hospital in Sonarpur that was built with the promise to provide affordable healthcare, has successfully completed two liver transplants.
One of the supporters of the Indian Institute of Liver and Digestive Sciences (IILDS) said the hospital was one of the few working in the third sector in Bengal. The third sector, which belongs neither to the government nor the corporate private sector, can provide efficient healthcare services to people at a cost they can afford, he said.
While people with some affluence do not want to go to government hospitals as they are afraid of not receiving professional services, they are also scared of going to corporate hospitals where they feel they will be charged more than the just amount. Yet they are forced to go to corporate hospitals, at times even borrowing money for treatment.
“We are a hospital that runs on donations from individuals and organisations. No one owns this hospital,” a doctor associated with the liver hospital said.
“Ever since the birth of this hospital in 2016, we wanted to conduct liver transplants. A liver transplant is the highest form of treatment for liver diseases. When the liver almost stops functioning one needs a liver transplant,” said Partha Sarathi Mukherjee, the executive director of IILDS. “Right now, we are in a position to conduct about 60 liver transplants in a year,” said Mukherjee.
The first transplant was conducted in May and the second transplant was conducted in December.
Sujoy Deb, a resident of Lataguri in Jalpaiguri, who underwent the transplant in May, said he was leading a normal life. “I go to my office, I do everything that someone without any illness can do,” said Sujoy. His wife Sushmita was the donor. “I never had any fear about donating liver,” said Sushmita.
A doctor at the hospital said that Indian laws allowed only first-degree and second-degree family members to donate liver in case of donation by a living person. The liver of deceased persons, even if they are not family members, can be harvested for transplant. “First-degree family members mean parents, siblings and children. Second-degree family members would include in-laws and cousins,” said Barun Nath, the liver transplant surgeon at the hospital. People who are healthy and between 18 and 55 years can come forward for donating a portion of their liver, said Nath.
Gastroenterologist Asokananda Konar, who is also the director of IILDS, said that the number of liver transplants in Bengal was still very low. “Only about 25 liver transplant is done in a year in Bengal. Lack of awareness among people is one of the reasons why the number is so low. The number of transplants done in Chennai or Delhi is far more,” he said. SSKM Hospital is the only government hospital in the state where a liver transplant is done. Few other private hospitals in Kolkata also conduct liver transplants.
44-year-old gets heart
A 44-year-old man from Tripura who flew to the city for a heart transplant was released from hospital on Saturday.
An official of Medica Superspeciality Hospital said that Ranjit Roy, who underwent the heart transplant, will be staying in a guest house for the next few days under the supervision of doctors.
“There was a brain-dead person in our hospital last week whose family agreed to organ donation. We called up Roy around 2am and he agreed to undergo the transplant. He took the next morning’s flight that got delayed for few hours,” said the official.
“The retrieval of the heart was done based on on Roy’s arrival,” the official said.
