city anchor: City hospital gives best Eid gift to a Pakistani mom — a new liver

Describing it as the best Eid gift ever,she said: “It is like being born again.”

They came to Delhi after doctors in Lahore suggested the complex and expensive surgery. “She was admitted on August 12,and thank Allah,the surgery is a success,” said Umar,the third of Zaibunnisa’s six children.

Umar has a problem with the word ‘donor’. “I didn’t donate anything. I just gave back what I got from her. I want to show her Red Fort and Humayun’s tomb before we return,” he said.

Zaibunnisa was diagnosed with hepatitis C four years ago — infected by an unsterilised needle. When her condition deteriorated,she was taken to Lahore,where “almost 50 to 60 interferon injections failed to treat her”,said Umar,who works as a personal assistant to the chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab.

“Hepatitis C virus had damaged her liver. She urgently needed a liver transplant,” he said.

“I checked the Internet and found that Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has the best and cheapest liver transplant facility in Asia. Doctors in Lahore confirmed this,” he said.

Towards the end of last year,she was on the brink of death – bleeding from the nose and often slipping into coma.

“By the time she came here,80 per cent of her liver was damaged,” Dr Naimish Mehta,who headed the surgical team at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital,said.

“Liver transplantation is complicated and hardly 10 surgeons in India are trained to carry out a successful living-donor transplant. In Pakistan,cadaveric donor (dead person) transplants were performed,but unsuccessfully,” he said.

Umar and his mother came to Delhi in February and were staying in a rented house in Rajendra Nagar. All this while,the doctors prepared for the surgery,monitoring her parameters.

Mehta’s team of 21 doctors,nurses and paramedics needed just a single unit of blood during the 16-hour operation,though they kept 10 units on standby.

“The artery to her liver was damaged. We had to cut a vein (graft) out of her right thigh and replace the ruptured artery. This requires extreme precision,” Mehta said.

“When the doctors asked me to keep 10 units of blood ready,I put notices in the coaching classes in the area. Many students came forward to help us. Even our landlord offered help,” Umar said.

“I was never made to feel an outsider. People went out of their ways to help me,” her said.

Hospital spokesman Ajoy Sehgal said Umar has been discharged on Sunday,while Zaibunnisa would have to wait for another week.

“The chief minister of Punjab province paid for the transplant that came to Rs 17.75 lakh,” Sehgal said.