A private hospital in Bengaluru on Tuesday claimed that it had successfully performed a live liver transplant on a Jehovah's Witness from Nigeria by not using blood or blood products, in order to protect the patient's religious beliefs.
Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian sect who prohibit the use of blood or blood products during their treatment.
Gehojadak (37), a Jehovah's Witness, had developed decompensated liver disease and visited more than three countries seeking treatment over the last four years but was turned away by most doctors due to the highly risky nature of surgery, Aster CMI Hospital said.
The surgery was challenging compared with a normal liver transplant because in order to protect the patient's religious beliefs, the medical team could not use blood or blood products (fresh frozen plasma, Cryoprecipitate, platelets etc.), Aster CMI Hospital said in a release, adding that very few such surgeries have been successfully conducted worldwide.
The patient's brother was the donor, Aster CMI Hospital said, adding, without a liver transplant, Gehojadak's chances of survival were less than 10 per cent over the next two years.
A team of liver specialists from Aster CMI Hospital thoroughly reviewed the patient's medical history before recommending a bloodless liver transplant and charted out a feasible pathway to make the surgery a success.
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"This transplant was especially challenging as we did not have the safety net (of using blood) even if the patient's life was at risk due to their advance directive. We have performed other non-transplant liver surgeries in Jehovah's Witnesses and this gave us the confidence to take on Gehojadak's transplant," Dr Rajiv Lochan, consultant liver transplant surgeon at Aster CMI Hospital, said.
The critical surgery took a 12-hour period to complete where two teams of specialists with close to 25 doctors, including anaesthetists and intensivists, worked in absolute sync with each other and Gehojadak finally received a life-saving liver transplant, Aster CMI Hospital said.
In a period of two weeks, the patient and his brother were fit enough to go home and were discharged from the hospital.
"Even if their haemoglobin levels dropped to life-threatening levels, the patients were clear that they would not accept a blood transfusion. Keeping the limitations in mind, the most effective treatment path was planned, and we spent close to two months preparing the patients for surgery," Arun V., consultant anaesthesiologist said.
The hospital arranged customised artificial products like synthetic drug molecules to conduct a bloodless liver transplant, he added.
