Two private hospitals in Coimbatore have collaborated to perform an inter-hospital swap liver transplant. This procedure involves two couples, wherein each wife was the donor for the other’s husband.

A 59-year-old man from Salem was admitted to the GEM Hospital and a 53-year-old man from Tiruppur was admitted to the Sri Ramakrishna Hospital. Both suffered from end-stage liver disease, requiring transplants. While their wives were willing to donate a portion of their liver, the blood group was incompatible, and this ruled out the possibility of direct donation, according to a press release.

Hence, doctors decided to perform a swap liver transplant, and initiated the process required. N. Anand Vijay, Liver Transplant Surgeon, GEM Hospital, said that the blood group of the patient admitted to their hospital was B, and his wife’s blood group was A, while the blood group of the patient admitted to the Sri Ramakrishna Hospital was A, and his wife’s was B. “The procedure was discussed with the doctors in Coimbatore, and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with Sri Ramakrishna Hospital,” he said.

P. Praveen Raj, Director, GEM Hospitals said that swap transplants were allowed under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, but, so far, were done only within a hospital.. “Since this was an inter-hospital swap transplant, we had several legal difficulties. The surgeries had to happen simultaneously in the two hospitals, for which a green corridor for about 3.5 km was created between the two hospitals,” he said.

The surgery was performed on July 3. They claimed that this was the first inter-hospital swap liver transplant in the country. Dr. Vijay said that the patients had difficulty in getting clearance from the Authorisation Committee for the swap transplant and, therefore, they approached the Madras High Court and obtained permission. He added that the transplants were covered under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.

R. Jayapal, Liver Transplant Surgeon, Sri Ramakrishna Hospital, said that this approach helped avoid the need for costly ABO-incompatible liver transplantation.

C. Palanivelu, Founder-Chairman, GEM Hospitals, said that many patients died waiting for organs, including liver, kidney, and lungs, due to the lack of donors.

R. Sundar, Managing Trustee, Sri Ramakrishna Hospital, S. Alagappan, Medical Director, Sri Ramakrishna Hospital, and Magnus Jayaraj, Transplant Surgeon, GEM Hospital, were present during a press meet.