Polio-stricken father picks up exercise, sheds weight to donate liver to son

HYDERABAD: A person with disabilities (Polio stricken in two legs and one hand) has went extra miles to shed fat in the liver so that he will be fit to donate a part of the organ for his son and save the child.

40-year-old D Uppalaiah from Khammam earns livelihood as a tailor and his wife D Lalitha used to work in farms. Though doctors asked him to lose four-kgs, to weed out any possibility of failure, he lost eight-kgs. His son Shashikiran (15) was detected with Cryptogenic Cirrhosis.

Suffering from the condition, the boy was taken to surgical gastroenterologists at Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) where specialists said that Shashikiran's liver has to be replaced to save his life. The family members enrolled the boy's name in government's cadaver transplantation Programme-Jeevandan, where organs are retrieved from brain dead patients and transplanted in recipient's body.

However, since he was placed 12 in waiting list, the father-who got to know that living person too can donate their organs, asked the specialists if he can be a donor. While doctors agreed to perform living donor liver transplantation, upon Laparoscopy examination, doctors got to know that he has excess fat in liver.

"Fat per-cent in liver should not be more than five-percent. The father had more than it," said Dr N Bheerappa, head of Surgical Gastroenterology department at NIMS. The specialists suggested him to lose weight to be fit for donating the organ, Though he has disability in two legs and one hand, determined to save his son, he charted out workout regime. Though he used to use cycle, he stopped using it around 15-years-ago and used to commute on bike fitted with extra tyres on both sides of the vehicle.

"Earlier, I used to walk only short distances, only when necessary. But I started to walk for two-kilometers a day and used to cycle too. I changed my diet too: stopped eating rice, started to eat a lot of pulses and drank juices. Doctors asked me to lose four-kgs, which I did in 20-days of starting exercise and diet regime. However, doctors also said the more weight I lose, the better it is. So I continued the regime till date of surgery and lost eight-kgs on the whole," said Uppalaiah.

Dr Bheerappa and his team performed the living donor liver transplantation on June 4 by taking 330-grams of liver from the father.

While Uppalaiah was discharged seven-days after the surgery, Shashikiran would be discharged soon as his post-operative recovery is good. Having accomplished the task of saving his son, would the father continue to exercise?. "I am going to resume exercise after I completely recover," said Uppalaiah beaming with happiness while sitting beside his son at NIMS.