Apollo Hospitals in Delhi has completed 500 liver transplants on patients from Pakistan, the hospital announced on Wednesday.
While Apollo gets patients from across the world, liver transplants conducted on Pakistani patients far outnumber the others. Almost 30 per cent of 1,700 liver transplants conducted at the hospital since 1998 on patients from over 20 countries – including Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, Cambodia, Canada and the US – were on patients from Pakistan.
According to the hospital, Apollo has created a milestone by becoming the first hospital in India to reach the 500-mark for patients from a single foreign country.
Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director and Senior Paediatric Gastroenterologist, Apollo Hospitals Delhi, said, “We are delighted that we have been able to touch so many lives from across the border.”
The 500th Pakistani patient, a toddler named Nalain Aziz, is ready to return home in Lahore to celebrate his second birthday this week.
Nalain, who was born with a condition in which the connection between the liver and intestines is missing, had been admitted at Apollo Hospitals for over two months with features of end-stage liver failure and other complications.
The toddler, who was first operated on at the age of two-and-a-half months, is likely to lead a healthy life following the transplant, for which his mother donated a part of her liver.
Nalain’s father Shoaib Nawaz, an engineer, said he was referred to Apollo by local doctors who first started Nalain’s treatment.
Sibal said once a hospital conducts 50-60 successful surgeries from a certain country, the word spreads among the medical fraternity, which leads to more referrals.Business Line
