Mumbai: Taloja resident Arun Walunj would regularly drive his truck to Pune till the abdominal pain started last year. “I also had swollen ankles,” said Walunj, who soon learnt that there was fluid in his abdomen due to liver failure.Walunj, a teetotaller, had fatty liver and was told he needed a transplant because it was in an advanced stage. His son, who works in a bank, was ready to donate, but had A positive blood group while Walunj was B positive.“When they came to me, I remembered another liver failure patient with a similar incompatible issue: his wife was B positive while he was A positive,” said transplant surgery Dr Gaurav Gupta from H N Reliance Foundation Hospital, Girgaum. He then suggested a swap transplant for the duo. The other patient, 50-year-old Avinash Kudache from Kolhapur, was considering a procedure that allows transplants across different blood types. “But it’s riskier than a matched transplant,” said his wife who consented for the swap. The four operations were carried out on Feb 19, with a part of Walunj’s son’s liver transplanted to Kudache whose wife donated to the Taloja resident.
