Little did 34-year-old Reema (name changed) from Sangamner in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district know of 51-year-old Savita (name changed) from Buldhana district or vice versa, but their husbands’ chronic ailment—liver cirrhosis—has brought their families together.
Desperate to save their spouses from near-certain death, Reema and Savita agreed to donate a part each of their livers to them. However, as their blood groups did not match, a doctor advised a swap liver transplant. Savita’s blood group matched with that of Reema’s husband, a businessman, while Reema’s blood group matched with that of Savita’s husband, a 54-year-old schoolteacher.
“Although each donor was related to one of the recipients, their livers were not compatible,” recalled Dr Bipin Vibhute of the Sahyadri Superspeciality Hospital at Deccan Gymkhana in Pune. He performed a two-way transplant that both families agreed to on March 13. The gruelling 20-hour-long surgery across four operation theatres at the hospital marked the city’s first swap liver transplant.
Two months on, both the donors and recipients have recovered and are organising a meet-up soon. When contacted, Reema and Savita told The Indian Express how they cherished this unique bond. “We were so scared but decided to go ahead with the doctor’s suggestion. We had tried all methods to save our husbands, but this was the best solution,” said Savita, whose daughter is an Ayurveda physician in Pune.
The two transplants were carried out concurrently by performing surgeries on the two donors and two recipients. A 25-member medical team including 11 doctors collaborated in four operating theatres for more than 20 hours to accomplish the Herculean task, according to Dr Vibhute, the lead surgeon.
“Swap transplants had taken place in prominent cities like Mumbai and Delhi before, but the one done in Pune was the first of its kind. Such exchanges prove to be life-saving for recipients whose relatives are medically fit but cannot donate due to mismatched blood groups or liver size,” he added.
Dr Vibhute emphasised the significant role that patient counselling plays before such procedures. A major challenge was to perform four surgeries simultaneously in as many operating theatres—right from administering anaesthesia to completing the transplant, he said.