Doctors' dexterity saves 50-year-old patient’s life in Vishakhapatnam

VISAKHAPATNAM: Performing both kidney and liver transplants within an hour’s gap may not be a tough task for specialists in the field. But it sure is if both transplants are to be performed on the same patient, who is 50 years old, said doctors of the city’s KIMS Icon hospital, who recently achieved this complex feat.

They performed a kidney and liver transplant on the same day, giving a new lease of life to a 50-year-old Kanaka Apparao, a photographer by profession. A fortnight after the transplants, which were done on November 2, Kanaka Apparao is said to be doing well now.

Explaining the challenges involved, KIMS Icon medical gastroenterologist Dr Chalapathy Rao Achanta and nephrologist Dr R K Mahesh said that there were multiple problems as the patient’s liver was badly damaged due to blood-related issues caused by the severe spread of the hepatitis-C virus. Adding to the problem was his damaged kidney due to diabetes.

With him in a near-death situation, we had to find a donor on a priority basis. Fortunately, for Apparao, we could get a kidney and a liver from a 70-year-old female donor, they mentioned.