OGH performs landmark emergency liver transplant

Hyderabad: The Osmania General Hospital (OGH) team has performed a life-saving emergency liver transplantation for a 17-year-old girl under the ‘Super Urgent Category’ within the Jeevan Daan programme. This marks the first instance of a financially disadvantaged patient benefiting from this specific category in a government hospital in India.

According to doctors, Blessy Goud, 17, from Film Nagar, was admitted to Osmania General Hospital’s Surgical Gastroenterology ICU in a critical condition (gasping state) with Acute Fulminant Liver Failure on 12 May 2025. She was intubated and connected to a ventilator due to Grade 4 Hepatic Encephalopathy (coma). Her history indicated a five-day fever with jaundice. Initially treated at a private hospital, she was transferred to OGH due to her worsening medical condition and financial constraints.

Doctors reported that Blessy presented with severe jaundice and Grade 4 Hepatic Encephalopathy, with no prior history of liver disease or symptoms. She met the King’s College criteria for emergency liver transplantation. While a living donor liver transplantation was considered, her family had no suitable donor; she had no other siblings and was from a single-parent household. Her mother, a tailor, also suffers from a medical condition. Blessy required an urgent liver transplantation within 48 hours to survive. Dr CH Madhusudhan, Professor and Head of the Department of Surgical Gastroenterology at OGH, explained that registering for a cadaver liver organ on the elective list in Jeevan Daan typically takes much longer due to a high waiting list, and there is no definitive liver dialysis for such acute fulminant liver failure patients.

“For the first time in the history of government hospitals, we performed an Emergency Liver Transplantation for Acute Fulminant Liver Failure under the super urgent category with the help of Jeevan Daan. It is a truly challenging surgery to operate on such a sick patient for 20 hours in a government hospital, and that too in a short period of time,” said Dr Madhusudhan. He added, “We received organ allocation within 24 hours from Jeevan Daan. The brain-dead donor was from another private/corporate hospital. We performed the liver transplantation on 14 May 2025. The patient recovered very well and was discharged in fit condition after two weeks.” Dr Madhusudhan also mentioned that Blessy is now sitting her B Tech first-year examinations.