First ever child liver transplant performed in Sri Lanka

The North Colombo Teaching Hospital (NCTH) Ragama liver transplant team together with expert doctors from across the country, was able to perform a living-donor liver transplant on a nine year old girl. This marks the first successful liver transplant performed for a child in Sri Lanka, Prof. Rohan Siriwardana said.

According to Prof. Siriwardana, with this transplant, the NCTH liver transplant team has reached a milestone of performing 50 liver transplants where the rest were adults. The nine year old girl had cirrhosis of the liver. The surgery was performed on July 14 and the donor was the girl’s mother. Both the mother and child are doing well and going through a smooth recovery.

Prof. Siriwardana said that the girl required frequent admissions to the ICU during the past one year. Paediatricians clearly mentioned that the girl urgently needed a liver transplant in order to survive. However, there was no paediatric liver transplant service available in the country to help her. The only option the family had was to seek medical care overseas.

“Complex operations were carried out on the child and the mother over a period of 12 hours with the help of expert doctors from across the country. Subsequently, the child was transferred to Hemas Hospital, Wattala as there was no dedicated ICU at the NCTH, Ragama. The child stayed in the ICU for 7 days at Hemas Hospital which was offered free of charge. She is now warded at the NCTH, Ragama and is preparing to go home in a few days. The mother has also recovered and is enjoying the company of her daughter who received a new life from her,” he added.

(Source: Daily News – By Nadira Gunatilleke)