Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals complete 100 liver transplants in Filipino children

SOME 100 Filipino children between four months and 15 years old have undergone successful liver transplants at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in Delhi, India.

Some of the Filipino children who received a liver transplant pose with Apollo Hospitals Group Medical Director and Senior Pediatric Gastroenterologist, Dr (Prof) Anupam Sibal. 

Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals said it has reached the landmark of performing 100 liver transplants in children from the Philippines who were suffering from various diseases that had resulted in liver failure. 

It said these lifesaving procedures mark an important milestone in strengthening relations between India and the Philippines, according to P Shivakumar, the Managing Director of the Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals. 

“Apollo Hospitals leads the way in delivering cross-border care for children. Our approach is aligned with Apollo’s overarching objective of providing prompt delivery of healthcare services, notwithstanding myriad constraints. This becomes even more important when it comes to caring for children. We believe there is no greater joy than seeing the smiles of children who have been saved by our timely medical intervention,” he said. 

Dr (Prof) Anupam Sibal, the hospitals’ Group Medical Director and Senior Pediatric Gastroenterologist, said Apollo Hospitals has been receiving children with liver failure from the Philippines for the last five years and were able to help many families from different parts of the country. 

“We would like to thank families for their trust as we mark the landmark of 100 liver transplants in babies and children from the Philippines. Despite COVID restrictions, we have transplanted 53 children in the last two years. The youngest child to be operated on was four months.” 

“Significantly, babies weighing barely 3.5kgs have also had liver transplants at Apollo Hospitals. Our initiative has been facilitated by the immense support from the Embassies which helped in easing travel formalities for patients,” he said. 

The Apollo Liver Transplant Program, the first successful program in India which was established in 1998, has now performed more than 3,950 liver transplants, including 458 in children from 20 countries. 

Dr Neerav Goyal, Senior Liver Transplant Surgeon at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, said: “In liver transplant, surgery is performed when patients have a high risk of dying from their disease in the ensuing weeks to months. Since Covid-19 is not going away anytime soon, many of these patients were unlikely to survive the period of the pandemic without liver transplant, and the patients despite several challenges travelled to us. We are happy that we can help them in easing their pain and providing a new lease of life. In 65% of children, the donors were mothers, in 30% fathers and 5 % other blood relatives.” 

Despite the pandemic which poses serious challenges in the last two2 years, Apollo Hospitals said it made sure that children and their families were provided end-to-end assistance in terms of aligning travel permissions while also ascertaining patient safety by arranging special charter flights with a medical team on board to manage any emergencies. (Richard Ebona)