Hyderabad: Festivities have come into the lives of this daughter-mother duo after long. However, it was not before they underwent the traumatic experience of suffering from COVID-19 that was cured by the able team of medical experts.
An 8-year-old girl child was admitted to the city-based hospital in mid-October with end-stage liver cirrhosis problem coupled with deep jaundice and abdominal distension, making her case a complex one.
Compatibility assessment was done, and it was found that her mother’s liver would suit the child; however, prior to the transplant surgery, the child was found to be positive for COVID-19.
While the child was treated with optimal medication, her ‘donor’ mother turned positive for the deadly virus, further delaying and complicating the transplant procedure.
Commenting on the challenges, Dr. K.N. Chandan Kumar, Senior Consultant Hepatologist, Gleneagles Global Hospitals, who performed the transplant surgery said, “While COVID-19 disrupted healthcare machinery around the world, most challenging was to continue to perform resource-intense and challenging procedures like liver transplant surgeries.”
“It was a month-long ordeal for the family who were kept in perfect quarantine to ensure their recovery is well,” said Dr. Chandran.
“Along with the right medication, two consecutive COVID-19 PCR tests by nasopharyngeal swab and HRCT chest test were conducted on the child, while HRCT chest test on the donor,” said Dr Prashanth Bachina, Hepatologist & Pediatric liver Transplant Physician of Gleneagles Global Hospitals.
“Once it was ascertained that there is a significant percentage of antibodies and all inflammatory markers are negative in both the recipient and the donor, the surgery was conducted successfully,” he added.
Now, four weeks after the transplant, both the child and her mother are doing fine, and the child is on a periodic follow-up.