CMCH may put three patients on liver transplant waiting list

Coimbatore: Three weeks after the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (Transtan) permitted the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) to perform liver transplants, the hospital is in the process of putting three patients on the waiting list.
The patients have a good chance of receiving a liver if a government hospital harvests an organ that matches their blood type. CMCH had performed the first cadaver kidney transplant a week ago.
The hospital, which began constituting a team and facilities to perform liver transplants a year ago, now has two surgical gastroenterologists trained to perform liver transplants. “We have three patients who need to undergo transplant and are fit enough to undergo the surgery,” said a senior CMCH official.
“We are in the process of completing all our assessments and sending them to Transtan. Once the liver transplant committee approves it, we will arrange for them to benefit from the comprehensive health insurance scheme. Once those two steps are fulfilled, they will be on the waiting list,” hospital dean Dr B Ashokan said during an earlier interaction with TOI.
If any of the government hospitals in the region announces a brain death and the blood group matches with those on the wait list, the patients have a strong chance of receiving a liver soon.
Salem GH had declared a brain death and arranged for organ harvesting for the first time on January 21 and CMCH had the first organ harvest on February 5. CMCH gets 10 to 12 patients declared brain dead in a month. However, they usually pass away before they can be put on ventilator or maintained.
So far, the liver failure patients that CMCH receives are medically managed with drugs. “In acute cases, they are sent to the Government Stanley Medical College Hospital, which performs many cadaver liver transplants,” said an official. “Some patients go to CMCH, while the others end up going to private hospitals if they can afford it. Others manage on medications as long as possible.”
However, the poor are severely affected because private hospitals charge a minimum of Rs 32 lakh for a transplant, including investigations and medications.