Maharashtra: Nine-month-old becomes youngest in state to undergo liver transplant

Doctors said the boy, Kavya Raut, received a part of the liver of her mother, Nisha Raut (24), two weeks ago.

After reducing the donated liver to fit the baby’s system, the doctors were able to implant the liver by joining tiny blood vessels measuring 3 to 5 mm in diameter. (Representational Image)

A nine-month-old boy, suffering from a congenital defect, has become the youngest person in Maharashtra to undergo liver transplant. Till now, a 13-month-old baby from Ahmedabad, who had undergone liver transplant in Maharashtra in April, was the youngest to undergo such a surgery in the state.

In the latest case, doctors said the boy, Kavya Raut, received a part of the liver of her mother, Nisha Raut (24), two weeks ago. Kavya suffered from congenital defect, biliary atresia — a condition in which the ducts that carry bile from liver to intestine are missing.

“Due to this defect, the baby developed liver cirrhosis. After a few failed attempts at treating the child’s liver, we turned to transplants,” said Dr Anurag Shrimal, who led a team of surgeons at Wokchardt Hospital to conduct the surgery.

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“Once the liver was harvested, the biggest task in carrying out any kind of liver transplant is managing the blood loss, and in an infant, this was particularly challenging,” Shrimal said.

After reducing the donated liver to fit the baby’s system, the doctors were able to implant the liver by joining tiny blood vessels measuring 3 to 5 mm in diameter.

Dr Gaurav Gupta, a surgeon at the hospital, said: “The baby will now be able to live a normal life. Had the surgery not taken place, he would only have lived for a few more months.”

Kavya’s father, Vivek Raut (34), paints statues of Ganesh. “We are grateful to these doctors as well as the social workers who helped us cure our son. When I came here, I had finished most of my savings.”

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