By BILAL KANJAL
ISLAMABAD: The non-functioning of Liver Transplant Centre (LTC) at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) public hospital is causing much disappointment among people of the capital as the number of patients requiring the transplant is on the rise. According to reports, the facility at the hospital is incapable of providing surgery even to half the number of patients.
The absence of a government-run liver transplant unit in the city forces the poor to go to private hospitals where the prices are beyond their reach, for which they are compelled to sell most of their assets to save their lives. The city’s only LTC at the public hospital has failed to fulfil its purpose due to certain financial constraints and a shortage of experts in the field.
A couple of miles away from PIMS, Shifa International Hospitals (SIH) made history in surgery, known as “the most complex surgery ever carried out in medical sciences”, by succeeding in more than 500 liver transplant cases.
PIMS LTC was started in 2009 at a cost of Rs 220 million. A team was sent to London for training and in 2012 a team of experts from abroad visited Pakistan. Both the teams then, in collaboration with each other, conducted the first liver transplant.
Attaullah Baloch, who is 33 years old, was the first patient at PIMS in LTC who received a portion of the liver, donated by his wife, but he died within 24 hours. No transplant surgery has been carried out since then.
He was suffering from Hepatitis-B which developed into a chronic liver disease.
Due to the non-availability of trained staff and unavailability of experts, the project was shut down. It couldn’t be made functional due to mismanagement of PIMS administration and non-availability of funds so far.
People also express their concerns as they face numerous hurdles, such as the non-issuance of visa by the Indian embassy to those requiring a surgery.
After the formation of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government, the issue of liver transplants was not even discussed at any platform, said a PIMS official.
Non-functioning of the unit at the hospital is eating up lives, especially of the poor, said one of the donors, Fida Hussain, donating liver to his brother – residents of Layyah – at Shifa Hospital.
He said, “I sacrificed all my assets, including land and even my own liver, to save the life of my brother but unfortunately couldn’t succeed.”
“My expenditures for the surgery have reached almost 8 million,” he added. I strongly believe that life of everyone is in the hands of ALLAH, but if there is a facility at PIMS, at least the remaining life can be made easy by getting relief in expenditures, he said.
SIH Liver Transplant Department Head Dr Faisal Saud Dar revealed that about 3,000 to 4,000 people of Pakistan need liver transplant per year as they reach the End Stage Liver Disease (ESLD), but we can afford only 125 to 130 patients per year. So there is a dire need of liver transplant center to save the lives of people of the country.
He further stated that according to Pakistan Medical Research Centre (PMRC), almost 2.5 to 3 million people will have a need of liver transplant within the next ten to twenty years in the country. This is the figure of those people who will need the surgery due to the diseases of “HCV” and “HBV”. Besides these, there are many other diseases which lead towards liver transplant, he added.
When asked to explain the matter, PIMS Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Akram said that “we have recovered almost 99 per cent equipment and succeeded to manage an expert surgeon for liver transplant – Dr Faisal Saud Dar – from SIH, and the summary for the same has been forwarded to the prime minister (PM) for his approval from the past four months”.
“As soon as we receive the written approval from the PM, LTC will start functioning,” he added.
Talking to Pakistan Today, the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Secretary Nargis Ghaloo said that things were in process and they will resolve the issue and release funds for the centre very soon.
