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Sri Lankan national's liver transplanted during lockdown at VPS Lakeshore
May 24th 2020

Sri Lankan national's liver transplanted during lockdown at VPS Lakeshore

As the world watches in awe the way Kerala handled the COVID 19 pandemic, there is more reason to celebrate the state’s excellent healthcare infrastructure as a beaming Mohammed Fayaz Mohideen (46) from Sri Lanka is ready to return home healthier and happier once the international flight operations begin after the lockdowns.  Mr. Fayaz, an employee in a tour company in Colombo, was suffering from end-stage liver disease for close to one year and was told by his doctors in Colombo that he had just a few months to live unless he underwent a liver transplantation. He visited Kochi's VPS Lakeshore Hospital in November 2019 for the initial consultation, as Sri Lanka was yet to have liver transplantation facilities. With the first visit, he decided to have the surgery at VPS Lakeshore as the confidence exuded by Dr. Abhishek Yadav, Head of the Comprehensive Liver Care Institute at the hospital, was convincing enough for him.

He went back to Colombo for the preparations as his 21-year-old college-going daughter Fathima Habsath Mohideen volunteered to be the donor. But then came the news of Covid 19 trickling in, and it was after a lot of life-and-death running around that his family found four seats in the last scheduled flight from Colombo to Kochi on March 19, 2020 just a day before the global lockdown. On arrival, he was tested for Covid and quarantined as per the government protocol. The liver transplant surgery was performed on May 4, 2020 and after an uneventful recovery, he was discharged from the hospital last Monday (May 18).

"What made the surgery even more unique was that a small part of a blood vessel which was harvested from a brain-dead donor in Thiruvananthapuram 10 days back was also utilized to supplement a blood vessel inside Mohammed Fayaz Mohideen's body," Dr. Abhishek Yadav said.

S K Abdulla, CEO, VPS Lakeshore Hospital, said this was one among the six  liver transplants done at VPS Lakeshore Hospital during the lockdown days including that of a 7-year-old year old girl's.  Mohammed Fayaz Mohideen said his case, including those of others, are proof of the fact that healthcare facilities function and available beyond borders despite the unprecedented lockdown restrictions that caught humanity unawares.