In a rare instance of cross-border medical collaboration, doctors from India’s Apollo Group of Hospitals performed four successful liver transplants with Pakistani surgeons at Shaikh Zayed Hospital here.
The Indian doctors – Neerav Goyal, Shaleen Agarwal, Shishir Pareek, Shiraz Ahmad, Subhash Chander Chawla and Navaneethan Subramanian – performed the procedures this week.
They were assisted by Indian operating theatre technicians Sarat Singh Rawat, Vanitha and Abey Varghese Abraham and Pakistani transplant surgeons of Shaikh Zayed Hospital.
The Indian surgeons had planned four liver transplants during their visit, which was part of a programme for sharing expertise with local doctors and training them in sensitive procedures.
Shaikh Zayed Hospital short-listed patients for the surgeries on the basis of their health.
Apollo Group of Hospitals managing director Preetha Reddy, who accompanied the Indian doctors, met Shaikh Zayed Hospital chairman Zafar Iqbal and discussed plans to start an exchange programme for training doctors of both hospitals in the fields of oncology, liver and cardiac diseases.
Every year, scores of Pakistanis visit India for medical treatment, including transplant surgeries. In recent years, several children have undergone complicated procedures at hospitals in Indian cities like Delhi.
During the recent surgeries in Lahore, 25-year-old Mudassar donated part of his liver to his 45-year-old cousin Nazar Hussain.
Muhammad Irfan, 27, donated part of his liver to his maternal uncle Muhammad Anwar, 56, of Faisalabad. Ali Abubakr, 26, of Rajanpur underwent liver transplant surgery at the institute and the donor was his brother Hakeem Khan, 22.
Faisal Baig, 21, of Sialkot donated his organ to his father Mirza Arshad Baig, 57, due to the scarcity of cadaveric liver donors.
PTI