After 15-hour-long overnight procedure, Chennai's RGGGH successfully transplants liver

CHENNAI: A 15-hour liver transplant surgery was successfully completed at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) on Sunday.

The surgery began at 6.30 pm on Saturday and went on till 10.15 am the following day.

The 11th successful liver transplant was done by a team of doctors headed by Dr Sugumar, department of hepatology and Dr K Prem Kumar, associate professor, Hepatology and director in-charge of the Institute of Hepatobiliary Sciences at the hospital.

The State Health Department had signed an MoU with Rela Hospital in 2022 to perform liver transplants at five government hospitals, including RGGGH. The first successful transplant at RGGGH was done in February 2023, and since then, 10 more transplants have been performed successfully.

“Currently, liver, heart and kidney transplants are being performed at the hospital,” said a senior official from the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu.

The government doctors have been trained in transplantation as part of the MoU at the government hospitals. As many as 11,002 organ transplantations have been successfully performed in the State since so far.

However, the waiting list seems to increase every day with at least 6,718 patients waiting for kidneys, 468 for liver, 67 for heart, 40 for both lungs, two for pancreas and four for the small bowel.