UPA Chairperson felicitates India’s first successful Liver Transplant recipient as he completes 15 years post transplantation

UPA Chairperson and Congress Party President,Smt. Sonia Gandhi felicitated India’s first successful liver transplant recipient, Sanjay Kandasamy from Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu who had undergone a liver transplant in November 1998 at Apollo Hospitals Delhi.

On the 15^th anniversary of successful liver transplantation in India, Smt. Gandhi interacted with Sanjay and his family and said, “It is wonderful to see how the young infant in dire need of a transplant is today a healthy young man who himself wants to become a doctor. It is a testament not only on India’s medical acumen but also of the tenacity of this young man. I wish him and his family the very best for the future and I would like to congratulate the institution for establishing liver transplantation in our country“.

Sanjay was born with a rare condition called Biliary Atresia, which is seen in 1 in 12000 babies. This is a condition in which there is no connection between the liver and the intestine so the bile produced in the liver cannot be excreted and therefore damages the liver. These babies develop jaundice a few days after birth and the jaundice progressively increases. An operation to create bile flow, if performed before the age of 2 months can prevent liver failure. Unfortunately in India, most babies with biliary atresia are diagnosed after the age of 3 months making this operation unsuccessful. This happened in Sanjay’s case. Since his condition was deteriorating because of liver failure, his family decided to come to Delhi as a liver transplantation program was being established at Apollo Hospitals Delhi. Sanjay’s father came forward to donate a part of his liver to give his son a new lease of life. Sanjay became the first child to undergone a liver transplant in India on 15^th November 1998 and made medical history.

Dr Preetha Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group, said, “The success of the liver transplantation has established the low cost – high quality value proposition that India offers and has enhanced the reputation of Indian healthcare globally. The outcomes are comparable to the best in the West with a cost which is one tenth”.

According to Dr.AnupamSibal, Group Medical Director and Senior Pediatric Gastroenterologist, Apollo Hospitals Group, “Sanjay now leads a completely normal life, goes to school like other kids, enjoys meals, plays football, wants to become a doctor to save lives. Sanjay’s success helped establish liver transplantation in India. The Apollo Transplant Program has now performed more than 1500 liver transplants, out of which more than 700 have been performed in the last two years. By performing 1200 solid organ transplants in 2012, the Apollo Transplant Program became the busiest solid organ transplant in the world. Today, we would like to thank Sanjay’s family for their faith in us which helped the program achieve this landmark”.