India's first child to have undergone liver transplant in 1998, now a doctor in Bengaluru

New Delhi: Twenty-four years after a Kanchipuram-based patient, Sanjay Shakthy Kandaswamy became the face of India's first successful pediatric liver transplant surgery, he is currently working as a doctor in Bengaluru fulfilling his long-awaited childhood dream.

When he was born in 1997, Kandaswamy was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a rare liver disorder that resulted in post-natal jaundice. The disorder led to liver failure which in turn necessitated a transplant surgery.

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Thus, on 15th November 1998, the country's first successful liver transplant surgery was performed on Kandaswamy by Dr MR.Rajashekar, Dr A V Soin and Dr Anupam Sibal at Apollo Hospitals of Delhi where Kandaswamy's father became the donor. Biliary atresia leads to bile accumulation in the liver which causes liver failure, and it has no connection between the liver and intestine.

Talking about his reason behind becoming a doctor, Kandaswamy said, "I love babies and that is why I want to become a pediatrician. Had I not been a doctor, I would have pursued pharmacy or genetic engineering." Stating that he was the only one wearing masks to school, he said, "Other children were naturally curious. I was in Class 6 when I understood what had happened to me. While growing up, I started searching for transplants about liver transplant."

Dr AV Soin, now chairman of liver transplant surgery department at Medanta who had performed the surgery on Kandaswamy said that the transplant was complex and took around ten hours to complete. The three doctors assigned with the case were performing such a case for the first time in India and had conducted such transplants abroad.

Soin said, "I saw the baby (Sanjay) in his mother's arm and he was dying. My thought was, 'we can save his life'. That was the driving force for us." After the successful completion of the surgery, the three doctors had given him a new first name, "Sanjay" in place of his original name, "Shakthy".

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported about the 20th-anniversary celebrations of the first successful liver transplant surgery by the Apollo Hospitals Group during which they had released a statement stating that Sanjay and his doctors created history in the annals of Indian medicine as the country's first successful liver transplant surgery. During that time, Sanjay was in training to be a doctor. The hospital also showcased the evolution that liver transplants have gone through over the last two decades during the event that took place a few years back.

The first deceased donor liver transplant (DDLT) in India was performed in 1995, which remained unsuccessful, as per a media report in the Times of India. Following that, several failed attempts were made at the transplant till the first successful transplantation took place in 1998.

Observing that Kandaswamy's treatment initiated further liver transplants in the country, Apollo Hospitals founder and chairman Dr Prathap C Reddy said, "Over the last 24 years, the Apollo Liver Transplant Program has performed more than 4,050 transplants in patients from more than 50 countries, of which 489 have been children."

Talking about the various changes that took place in the field of a liver transplant after the first successful surgery, Dr Anupam Sibal, group medical and senior pediatric gastroenterologist from Apollo said, "Age and size are no longer barriers and we now do liver transplant in babies as light as 3.5kg. We also perform combined liver and kidney transplants, transplants when the donor is ABO-incompatible, and transplants in babies and children with co-existing medical and surgical conditions. Concerns about puberty and risks of infections have been addressed with children leading a normal life post-transplant with an excellent quality of life."

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