Doctors at MGM Healthcare hospital recently had to make a difficult decision whether or not to proceed with a liver transplant for a patient after his COVID-19 test result returned ‘positive’ in the middle of the surgery.
While the doctors decided to proceed with the surgery despite the risks for the patient and themselves, the test result later turned out to be a false positive.
According to a statement issued by the hospital, the 46-year-old patient was suffering from liver ailments for a few years and recently developed a life-threatening spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP). Since his illness was critical, his sister came forward to donate a part of her liver.
During the evaluation for surgery, the patient tested negative twice for COVID-19.
A day before the surgery, another sample was taken. As his condition deteriorated badly, the doctors decided to start the procedure for transplant even as the result was awaited, the statement said.
When the surgery commenced, it was brought to the surgeons’ knowledge that the result had returned positive.
Selvakumar Naganathan, director, Institute of Liver Transplantation and HBP Surgery, decided to proceed with the surgery as all safety protocols were in place even if the patient was COVID-19-positive, the statement said.
Had confidence
Prashant Rajagopalan, director, MGM Healthcare, said that despite the unique situation, they had the confidence to go ahead, thanks to the hospital’s superior COVID-19 protocol and the assurance that all precautionary measures were in place.
“We were happy both for ourselves and the patient that another RT-PCR test performed for COVID-19 came negative for him,” he said, adding that the patient and the donor were discharged around two weeks after the surgery.
