Mumbai: Just three weeks ago, 26-year-old Kurla resident Vinu (name changed) was a healthy young man who believed liver failure was something that happened to others. Careful about what he ate and drank, he had no reason to imagine that a casual lunch with office colleagues would trigger a chain of events that would leave him with barely 24 to 36 hours to live.What began as stomach pain soon turned into jaundice. Within a week, after treatment at two local nursing homes, Vinu was referred to Nanavati Max Super Speciality Hospital in Juhu, where doctors diagnosed hyperacute liver failure. An emergency liver transplant was his only chance of survival.Liver transplant surgeon Dr Gaurav Chaubal said, “Vinu came to us around 8 pm on June 25, and his parameters were quite critical. A transplant was the only option.”Although Dr Chaubal has performed more than 50 ABO-incompatible liver transplants, they were all planned weeks in advance. “We need to prepare the donor with plasma donation so that there is no rejection of the foreign organ when transplanted,” he said.With no compatible donor and little time, the team proceeded with Ritu as the donor after performing plasmapheresis (plasma exchange) before and after the transplant. “This is perhaps the first time in Western India when an incompatible liver transplant was carried out within a 24-hour span,” Dr Chaubal said, adding that a similar case was earlier reported from Chennai.“For a mother, it is an easy decision. She will help out her child without any questions asked,” said Ritu, who donated part of her liver. She was discharged on July 2 and returned to the hospital on Tuesday night to take her son home.Dr Chaubal said Vinu was the third patient in his 20s to undergo an emergency liver transplant at Nanavati in June-July. “All three had fulminant liver failure. Vinu and the first patient had hepatitis A infection, while the second patient had autoimmune hepatitis,” he said.Doctors said the case highlights that hepatitis A, though usually self-limiting, can occasionally become life-threatening.“Hepatitis A infections are usually self-limiting in 95% of the cases. However, in 5% of the cases, it could lead to emergencies,” said independent hepatologist Dr Chetan Kalal, who was not involved in Vinu’s treatment.He cautioned against delaying medical care or relying on unproven remedies after jaundice. “In many cases, patients and their families prefer alternative treatment the minute they hear jaundice. The patient is given a calorie-deficit diet, thinking the liver cannot function, but this is precisely the time when liver needs to be maintained,” he said. “The use of non-standard drugs in many cases worsens the liver failure,” Dr Kalal added.
