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Living donor liver transplant is no longer a new treatment procedure for the end stage liver disease patients. But is it not that much frequent for patients living in resource poor countries like Bangladesh due to the lack of technical expertise, full set up of transplant team and so on. Very few cases are done in foreign countries who can afford the cost. Such a living liver donor is Tasnimul Jannat alias Rafa, a higher secondary level student of Dhaka City College who donated her liver to her beloved father Md. Matiur Rahman.
Traditionally, organs for liver transplant are obtained from deceased donors, after they or their families have given consent to be an organ donor. Unfortunately, there are not enough deceased donor organs available for today’s growing list of people who are waiting for a liver transplant. Many patients waiting for liver transplants become too sick to undergo transplant surgery, and some may die while on the waiting list. If a patient can receive a portion of liver from a relative or friend, he or she has a chance to receive a portion of a healthy liver before becoming too ill to withstand transplant surgery. Living donor liver transplantation is a viable alternative for some patients.
Living donor liver transplantation offers an attractive alternative to deceased-donor organ transplantation. In living donor liver transplant, surgeons remove a portion of a donor’s liver. Another surgical team then removes the recipient’s entire diseased liver and replaces it with a portion of the living donor’s healthy liver. The donor’s liver and the portion of the donor’s liver given to the recipient grow back to their full size within a few weeks.
Md. Matiur Rahman, 52 was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis (a chronic liver disease) in 2012. He consulted many liver specialists at home and abroad. Considering the advice of different physicians at different centres, finally he decided to get admitted at the Global Health City Hospital at Chennai, India in April 2013.
Rafa, the daughter of Mr. Rahman came forward as the living donor to her beloved father. Finally the operation was successfully performed in August 2013. Now both the father and daughter are quite okay. They are under the follow up treatment at the same hospital.
Mr. Rahman informed Star Health about his liver transplant that he was quite satisfied with the services of the hospital. One of the reasons for choosing this hospital was quality care at affordable cost in comparison to some other countries like Singapore. One of the main cost involves long stay following the surgery.
Living donor liver transplant is now the ultimate solution for the patients with end stage liver disease. Unfortunately the procedure is yet to be introduced in full swing in Bangladesh. Right at this moment, it is available in some countries in the region.
According to the organ donation act in most of the countries, the donor should be closely related to the patients, and of course there are some other factors to be matched between the donor and the recipient.
Due to the shortage of cadaveric liver, living donor is better and the ultimate choice. But there is also shortage of donors. Awareness about the issues of living donor liver transplant can overcome these barriers. Donors like Rafa has shown pioneer example in this regard. It was in fact, a brave step forward for the sake of profound love to her father.
There are many patients dying every year in Bangladesh due to end stage of chronic liver diseases. So there is huge demand of liver transplant in the country. But it seems a long way to meet that demand. It is not only the issue of training the surgeons, but also developing a whole set up of transplant team comprising of multi-disciplinary approach. The government should also encourage and help building efficient teams for liver transplant which could save foreign currency as well as the lives of dying patients of the country due to liver diseases.

Source - The Daily Star