For Rs 15 lakh, 62-yr-old gets a new lease of life

“He is my angel,” said Chembur-resident Raghunath Kathuria, 62, his eyes welling up with tears.

On Republic Day, in a 12-hour complicated surgery costing Rs15 lakh, Kathuria received the liver of a 57-year-old brain-dead patient at Wockhardt hospital, and with it, a new lease of life.

Kathuria’s problems began in 2006, when he was diagnosed with cryptogenic cirrhosis of liver. “But I am not an alcoholic, in fact, I’m a workaholic,” clarified Kathuria, jokingly.

He managed to control the disease with medication, however, in September 2008, Kathuria’s liver developed complications. The diagnosis was bad. The only thing that would save his life was a liver transplant. Since no matching related donors were available, cadaver transplant became his only option.

“Kathuria’s condition was fast deteriorating. But finally, on January 26, relatives of another brain-dead patient, when counselled by the hospital social workers, agreed to donate the patient’s organs,” said Dr SK Mathur, senior consultant surgeon, liver transplantation.

“A normal healthy person can survive with just 35% of the liver as it has the capacity to regenerate upto 90 % in just six weeks,” said Dr Abha Nagral, physician who was a part of the team that operated on Kathuria.

The success of this surgery proves that Mumbai too has the technology and expertise to perform complicated liver transplants, which so far were being done in Delhi and in the South, said Dr Mathur.