Medical Marvel: In rare feat, Vizag man gets new kidney, liver on same day

Visakhapatnam: In a rare feat, two organ transplants were performed on a person within hours, giving a new lease of life to a 50-year-old.

It is quite a challenge if the organs to be transplanted are kidney and liver and that too on a person who is 50 years old. Undeterred by the magnitude of the challenge, a team of doctors from the city's premier KIMS Icon Hospital achieved it with dexterity.

They performed a kidney and liver transplant on the same day and provided relief to the patient. The doctors gave a fresh lease of life to 50-year-old Kanaka Apparao, a resident of the city and a photographer by profession, when he was staring at death. A fortnight into the twin-transplant on 2 November, Kanaka Apparao is back to near normal after his discharge from the hospital.

Explaining the problems confronting them at a press conference here on Friday, KIMS Icon medical gastroenterologist Dr. Chalapathy Rao Achanta and nephrologist Dr. R. K. Mahesh said that there were innumerable problems as the patient's liver was badly damaged because of blood-related issues caused by severe spread of hepatitis-C virus. Adding to the problem, due to diabetes, his kidneys were also completely damaged.

The hospital's medical panel felt that the only way to save the man was by way of organ transplantation. However, getting organs was yet another problem they had to reckon with. "With his life in danger, 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 were transplanted on the same day. It was providence that we could find an organ donor for the surgeries, which were his only survival hopes. Performing it at the most appropriate time saved the patient's life," they said.

This rare surgery was done on 2 November at Visakhapatnam's KIMS Icon Hospital. The team that performed the surgeries comprised liver transplant surgeons Dr. Ravichand Siddachari and Dr. Dr. Sachin Daga, kidney transplant surgeons Dr. Umamaheswara Rao and Dr. Murali Krishna Padhyla, gastroenterologist Dr. A. Chalapathy Rao, and nephrologist Dr. R.K. Mahesh.

"Following the successful surgeries, the patient recovered fast and went home 10 days after the operation. His liver and kidney are functioning normally now," the doctors said.

KIMS Icon's managing director Dr. Satish Kumar Pethakamsetty said that with state-of-the-art equipment in place, organ transplant surgeries are available at the hospital. He pointed out that they had done 10 liver transplants and nearly 100 kidney transplants while the lives of many patients were saved by doctors in the hospital.

AP Jeevan Dhan coordinator Dr. Rambabu appreciated the management and the doctors of KIMS Icon for the successful surgeries. Kanaka Apparao and his family members who were present on that momentous occasion thanked their "saviours" from KIMS Icon Hospital for their remarkable operations.