Bhubaneswar, Nov. 28: The SOA University has planned to set up a unit for liver transplantation with internationally acclaimed Liver Transplant surgeon Dr. Arvinder Singh Soin willing to train the personnel required for the unit and act as a facilitator.
“I have seen the facilities in this University hospital which has good infrastructure and if you start now, a liver transplant unit can become functional in 18 months time,” Dr. Soin said while speaking at a function organized to mark the World Day for Organ Donation and Transplantation here on Saturday.
Dr. Soin, known all over the world for his pioneering work in the field of organ transplantation and presently the Chairman of Medanta Institute of Liver Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine at Gurgaon, said “I would love to collaborate with SOA University and the IMS and Sum Hospital run by it for the project.”
“SOA University has the infrastructure, required faculty and passion which is important to run a liver transplantation unit. The personnel need to be trained which may take 12 to 18 months. Hopefully, it can have the first successful case here by 2017,” he said while interacting with media persons after the meeting.
Dr. Soin, who introduced liver transplantation in India 17 years ago, said the Medanta Institute had already trained 42 teams of personnel now engaged in liver transplantation in various places of the country.
Justice B.K.Mishra, Chairman of the State Human Rights Commission, was the chief guest at the function which was jointly organized by the SOA University and Multi Organ Transplantation and Human and Educational Research (MOTHER), an NGO promoting organ donation. Vice Chancellor Prof. Amit Banerjee presided.
Justice Mishra expressed the hope that IMS and Sum Hospital would become the first centre for liver transplantation in Odisha soon. He said he was willing to donate his body to the medical college.
Dr. Soin said when he returned to the country after being trained in the UK in organ transplantation, he had a hard time convincing people that liver transplantation was feasible in India. “The first 7 years were difficult because the people did not believe in the concept,” he said.
He successfully conducted the first liver transplantation in the Sir Gangaram Hospital in Delhi on November 6, 1998. So far, 7085 liver transplantations had been conducted in India of which 6548 were done in private hospitals with the Medanta Institute accounting for 2106 of them. The rest 537 were done in government-run hospitals. In 2014, 352 cases were done in the Medanta Institute with 95 per cent success, he said.
Dr. Soin said the rate of deceased donation of liver in India was abysmally low at 0.33 per million population as against 35 in Spain, 24 in the US and 17 in the UK. But India was in the forefront today in Living Donor Liver Transplantation (LDLT) led by the Medanta team, he said.
Prof. D.K.Roy, Medical Director of IMS and Sum Hospital, Dr. P.K.Mohanty, Medical Superintendent, Mr. Gopabandhu Kar, Managing Member of the University, Mr. T.N.Panda, Managing Trustee of MOTHER and Mr. Sachidananda Mishra of MOTHER also spoke.
