Coimbatore : A tragedy for one turning into a life-saving event for two others has to be counted as an unusual miracle in itself. A man named Sankar (Name changed) who was accidentally electrocuted was brought to PSG Hospitals on March 19 but was soon declared brain dead. Sankar's kin decided to donate his organs.
Coimbatore : A tragedy for one turning into a life-saving event for two others has to be counted as an unusual miracle in itself. A man named Sankar (Name changed) who was accidentally electrocuted was brought to PSG Hospitals on March 19 but was soon declared brain dead. Sankar's kin decided to donate his organs.
After their consent, it was decided to split the liver so that two patients could be benefited. In a normal case, the liver is usually donated as a whole to patients with liver failure. In this case, the liver was split into right half and left half, and donated to two different patients.
The right half was given to a patient with Cirrhosis of liver who had been admitted with liver cancer at the PSG Hospitals, while the left half of the liver was given to an eight-year old child with acute liver failure.
The team of doctors from PSG Hospitals had certified that since the quality of liver was very good, it could be split to have two patients benefit from one liver. Both patients need an urgent liver transplant. Splitting of the liver and sharing requires appropriate patients with correct size match, technical expertise and good co-ordination. Splitting of livers between two centers is a logistic nightmare and this is the first time in Tamil Nadu that a liver has been split and shared,
The doctors who successfully operated to save the lives of two needy patients have vowed to strive for the same procedure again in the future to help more patients live.