Jehozadak from Nigeria belongs to the Jehovah’s Witnesses who strive to adopt the type of Christianity taught by Jesus and practiced by his apostles. Jehozadak visited India for Rare bloodless Liver Transplant Surgery with his donor brother and wife at Aster CMI Hospital, Bangalore. Jehovah’s Witnesses group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.68 million followers who are involved in evangelism. They are the believers of Christian faith who restricts in using blood or blood products in the treatment of faith followers. A patient from Nigeria, Jehozadak, who had decompensated liver disease has undergone a rare liver transplant surgery which has been performed at Aster CMI Hospital, Bangalore. Their belief does not allow the use of blood or blood products in any kind of treatment such a situation arise in the life of Jehozadak, after having such criteria still doctors of Aster CMI Hospital has performed successful India’s first bloodless Liver transplant. Jehozadak family is thankful to the doctors who performed bloodless liver transplant considering their belief of not to use blood or blood products.
The surgery was difficult compared to a normal Liver Transplant Surgery because the medical team was unable to use blood or blood products to preserve the religious beliefs of the patient. Very few surgeries have been successfully performed worldwide. The hospital team held numerous meetings with the recipient and family for a comprehensive understanding of the various procedures and support measures that could be applied during the process. After understanding all the procedures patient’s family agreed to proceed for the surgery.
Considering all their belief the most effective treatment path was planned, and almost they spent around 2 months preparing the patient for surgery. The limitation of no use of blood transfusion even if their hemoglobin levels fell to life-danger this was very challenging for the doctor’s team. In order, to perform a bloodless Liver Transplant Surgery, the hospital arranged custom artificial products such as synthetic drug molecules, told Dr. Arun V, an Anesthesiologist.
The further preparation for the surgery the patient and donor also undergone to ‘prehabilitation’- the process during the brother solidify their haematopoietic system to resist surgery without external blood transfusion. “The patient was given haematopoietic, Iron and specific vitamins and erythropoietin strengthen their hemoglobin levels and support their muscles through routine physiotherapy and diet.” said Dr. Sonal Asthana, Consultant Liver Transplant Surgeon.
“Without Liver Transplant Surgery Jehozadak’s survival chances were very less than the next 2 years. Taking into consideration their belief we have figured out an alternative for blood transfusion”, said by Dr. Mallikarjun Sakpal, Consultant Hepatologist.
Alternatively, we used a ‘normovolemic hemodilution’ strategy, where they used special equipment to hold two units of the patient and donor blood attached to their systems so that the blood circulation connection could not be broken. This strategy was informed to the patient before the surgery performed. During surgery, the patient lost 2 units of blood but through this technique, we were able to make up for the loss, said Dr. Prakash Doraiswamy. He continued, that the surgeons employed a ‘cell-salvage’ surgical procedure to exact and recover lost blood during the operation. This kind of vicious cell technique is uncommon and not widely available in India is the technical expertise used to do so.
Two teams of experts, including anesthetizers from close to 25 doctors working in complete collaboration with each other and Jehozadak finally received a life-saving liver transplant surgery, took a 12 hour period to complete the critical surgery. The patient and his brother were fit enough to go home in a period of two weeks and were released from the hospital. Dr. Nitish Shetty, CEO Aster Hospitals, Bangalore said the kind of surgical technology necessary to bring this operation to a successful conclusion is par excellence and we are very proud of the team that we have given this patient a second chance of life.
Reference Source: https://gulfnews.com/uae/health/a-rare-bloodless-liver-transplant-surgery-performed-in-india-on-a-nigerian-patient-1.1580026883206