3.5 month old baby from Uzbekistan undergoes successful Living Donor Liver Transplant at Jaypee Hospital

– “Baby Yusuf was suffering from high risk end-stage liver disease

– Hyper reduced liver graft transplant was performed to reduce the size of the donor’s liver”

Noida, October 24, 2018:

“It was a difficult decision but we are glad that we took the risk,” that’s how his family describes the successful treatment of three and a half month old baby Yusuf from Uzbekistan, who recently underwent a living donor liver transplantation surgery at Jaypee Hospital, Noida.

Baby Yusuf was suffering from high risk end stage liver disease, an extremely critical condition where scar tissue replaces healthy liver tissue and stops the liver from working normally. Hyper reduced liver graft transplant was performed to treat the critical health condition of baby Yusuf. Worldwide, only handful of cases has been recorded in patients of age less than a year undergoing this complex high risk surgery.

Born in July 2018, baby Yusuf was one of the twin babies welcomed by the family back in Uzbekistan. Weighing 2.92kgs, Baby Yusuf was detected with jaundice causing yellowish discoloration of the skin tone and eyes just 5-6 days after birth. The local paediatrician thought its physiologic jaundice (common disorder affecting infants shortly after birth) which will eventually improve with routine medical care but baby Yusuf’s condition continued to deteriorate. Later, an ultrasound was done which highlighted that baby Yusuf was infact suffering from De-compensated Chronic liver disease causing a Cirrhotic liver (scarred liver) with Ascites, a condition which leads to decrease in liver function due to scarring of the liver, i.e. cirrhosis.

At 2.5 months of birth, baby started to develop an abdominal swelling due to accumulation of fluid in the belly. Baby Yusuf was having regular fever and his liver was at the verge of failing, making his survival virtually impossible without transplant at risk. The required medical and healthcare facilities for liver treatment were not available in Uzbekistan. At this juncture, parents decided to bring the baby to Jaypee Hospital for his liver treatment. This decision proved to be truly lifesaving and renewed their faith and trust in the mankind.

Explaining about the case, Dr. Abhideep Chaudhary, Senior Consultant at the Liver Transplant Department of Jaypee Hospital said, “Baby Yusuf was admitted in Jaypee Hospital on 30^th August. At admission, his jaundice was recorded more than 32 mg/dl where as the value in normal person is less than 1.5. His entire body turned pale and yellow in colour. His belly was swollen due to the accumulation of water. Every alternate day, there was a need to remove water from his abdomen to help him breath well. Since the baby was not feeding properly and was weak to undergo the high risk complicated surgery, daily nutritional assessment was performed and accordingly feeds were given. He was also detected with recurring infections thus, antibiotics were provided to clear them out. Also Baby Yusuf was not growing and his milestones were delayed. It took us 10 days to stabilise the baby’s condition prior to surgery.

“Baby Yusuf required Living Donor Liver transplantation surgery. His mother,
Feruza Dadaeva was evaluated as the potential donor for the surgery. For paediatric liver transplant, we take the entire left lobe of the donor or its portion (left lateral segment). But the baby was so small that even a portion of the left lobe of his mother’s liver was large in size to fit in Yusuf’s abdomen. We performed the complicated surgical procedure called as hyper reduced liver grafting process on 11^th September. It’s a surgical process to reduce the size of the selected portion of the donor’s liver to meet the requirement of receiver’s body. The surgical process was successfully performed with high precision and dexterity. The major challenge was to avoid any injury of the major blood vessels or bile duct in such a small segment of liver” added Dr. Chaudhary.

Team of doctors who took up the challenge included liver transplant surgeons, anaesthetists, paediatric critical care team and paediatric Hepatologists. Post surgery, expert care was offered for healing the surgical wounds and avoiding any kind of infection. Immunosuppressive medication was provided to control the immunity to prevent rejection of liver. To support the performance of weak heart and lungs of baby Yusuf, high flow oxygen and other supportive care was done by the expert team of paediatric intensivists and paediatric hepatologists. For almost a month baby Yusuf was under the supervision of experts at Jaypee Hospital.

Mrs. Feruza Dadaeva, Mother of baby Yusuf said, “We took our son to many hospitals in Uzbekistan but due to lack of International standard medical facilities, none of the doctors were able to detect the problem or agreed to take up the case of my son. Every day the health condition of my son was deteriorating. After researching about his disease and learning about the successful liver treatment cases that Dr. Abhideep Chaudhary had performed in the past, we decided to visit Jaypee Hospital and met him in person. Thanks to Dr. Chaudhary and his team for performing my son’s liver surgery. It is because of the doctors here that today my son is taking steps towards a healthy future”.

Such surgeries are complicated, highly demanding and need multidisciplinary team effort. They need clinical expertise and well-equipped operation theatres with advanced equipments. The treatment is usually prolonged and done in multiple stages. Successful execution of complex and risky surgeries demonstrate expert clinical services and advanced healthcare facilities available at Jaypee Hospital. Domestic as well as International patients who would have otherwise gone to the United States of America or Europe for treatment are now choosing Indian Hospitals due to faith in doctors and excellent hospital care at affordable cost.