Doctors at KLE Society’s Prabhakar Kore Hospital have successfully conducted 12 liver transplants in a year.
Of these, half of the recipients were from Belagavi district and the rest from far off places like Bengaluru, Kalaburagi, Hubballi, Haveri and Hassan.
These many transplants were possible due to the widespread awareness of organ donation in the population of North Karnataka.
Six of these livers were donated by the families of brain dead patients at the hospital, while the rest were received from donors in SDM Hospital Dharwad, KIMS Hospital and Suchirayu Hospital Hubballi.
The last liver donation was received from Mukund Rata from Vadgaon in Belagavi.
His family members volunteered to donate the organ after he was declared brain dead at KLE’s Prabhakar Kore Hospital.
“All this was possible due to the increasing awareness of organ donation in our society with families willingly coming forward to donate organs of their loved ones to save precious lives. There is already more than 30 liver transplant recipients on the waiting list who badly need a liver to sustain their lives,” said a release.
This is the only hospital in North Karnataka offering this facility.
It is well equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure for liver transplantation. It has a dedicated transplant OT, Liver ICU and post-transplant ICU with specialized nursing staff.
The hospital has a robust team of transplant coordinators led by Geeta S. Desai and Basavaraj Majati motivating families of brain dead patients for organ donation.
The transplant surgeries were possible due to the continuous and dedicated effort of the liver transplant team led by Santosh Hajare, who is the head of the Department of Gastroenterology and Liver Disease.
The surgeries were performed by Sudarshan Chaugale, a liver transplant surgeon, and his team. The anaesthesia team was led by Rajesh Mane and Manjunath Patil.
It is also the only established centre for multiple organ transplant surgeries in North Karnataka where kidney, heart and liver transplant surgeries are done routinely. “We are creating awareness among the public that one single individual can give a new lease of life to eight different individuals by donating his heart, liver, two kidneys, pancreas and lungs,” said the release.
