Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 4 (IANS) Eight-month-old Akshu’s parents had almost lost hope of saving their daughter who suffered from liver failure till they met doctors at the army hospital here. The baby has now got a new lease of life following a nine-hour surgery, becoming one of the youngest and smallest liver transplant recipients in India.

Akshu, daughter of Rifleman Anil Kumar, is recuperating fast and is likely to be discharged from the army’s R.R. Hospital in Delhi Cantt within a week. The piece of liver that her father had donated to her was successfully transplanted during the long surgery.

Maj. Gen. P.P. Verma, deputy commandant, R.R. Hospital, told reporters that Akshu was “suffering from liver failure caused by congenital absence of bile duct and was under treatment for jaundice and recurrent intestinal bleeding”.

When she was admitted to the hospital Sep 23, she weighed only five kg and “because of her small size, the piece of liver given by her father had to be reduced further during the delicate operation which lasted over nine hours”.

“The infant is progressing well,” Verma said.

The relieved father was all praise for the doctors who “returned me my life”.

“We had given up on hope. But I don’t know how to pay gratitude to the doctors. Only a father can understand that,” Kumar told IANS.

Lt Gen Naresh Kumar, officiating director general of Armed Forces Medical Services, said the liver transplant centre at the army hospital had so far performed 46 liver transplants, including seven paediatric liver transplants with “excellent results”.

This make the hospital a “pioneer in deceased donor liver transplantation in India”, said Kumar.