E-Paper
Pune hospital gives boy suffering from Wilson’s disease new life
Wilson’s disease is a genetic disorder that prevents the body from removing excess copper
Yash Galpelli, a 17-year-old from Ahmednagar, was diagnosed with Wilson’s disease. He has constant swelling in his hands and feet, episodes of nose bleeding and burning sensation in eyes. He was clueless about the condition he was suffering him. Wilson’s disease is a genetic disorder that prevents the body from removing excess copper. Galpelli became the first pediatric living donor liver transplant patient to undergo a live liver transplant at Sahyadri Hospital, Ahmednagar road.
The transplant took place in the last week of November 2018 and the donor was his own aunt, informed Dr Bipin Vibhute, liver transplant and haepatobiliary surgeon, Sahyadri Hospital.
“Wilson disease is an inherited condition that causes the body to retain excess copper. The liver does not release copper into bile as it should and hence copper starts building up in the liver and begins to damage the organ. The liver then releases the copper directly into the bloodstream, which carries it throughout the body. The copper build-up leads to damage in the kidneys, brain, and eyes. If not treated, Wilson’s disease can cause severe brain damage, liver failure, and death, ” he said.
Dr Dinesh Zirpe, liver transplant and gastrointestinal surgeon, Sahyadri Hospital said, “ Yash had a bleeding nose, abdominal swelling, loss of balance and joint ache, which are some of the symptoms of Wilson’s disease. Thankfully, the boy’s aunt had a matching blood group and was found fit for organ donation after complete liver assessment. The transplantat surgery was conducted on November 23 and lasted for 10 hours as it was a complex procedure due to multisystem involvement.”
Galpelli said, “I was looking forward to doing well in my Class 12 examination. There were times when I couldn’t even move or understand what was happening to me. Now after the surgery, I feel I have got a new lease of life.”
Since the patient’s family could not afford the treatment, Sahyadri hospital, in association with the chief minister’s medical assistance fund supported them with their finances. Under ‘Mission Muskan’, this is the first live liver transplant which was carried out at the Sahyadri hospital initiated by Dr Vibhute who brought Yash for this treatment. The help for this surgery was received from Tata Trust, The Pravin Agarwal Foundation and Rotary International. Yash underwent the surgery completely free of cost. The transplant team comprised of liver transplant expert Dr Vibhute, Dr Zirpe, Dr Manish Pathak, Dr Shailesh Sable, Dr Vinit Shah, Dr Anirudh Bhosale, Dr Manoj Raut, transplant coordinators Rahul Tambe, Arun Ashokan and Nitin Dushing.
Om Prakash Shete, chief, chief minister’s medical assistance fund said, “I have a standing order from chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to aim at providing accessible healthcare to one and all. Under ‘Mission Muskan’, we aim to reach out to grass-root levels by helping underprivileged children requiring immediate surgical intervention. Although our initiative is for kids below the age of 12 years, in this case an amount of Rs 3 lakh was made available from CM fund and we requested Tata Trust to treat this as a special case which we successfully did.”
