SSKM Hospital earlier this month conducted a liver transplant with its own team of doctors for the first time since the state-run hospital began liver transplant in 2009.
In all the 27 liver transplants done at the hospital before the one performed this month, doctors from outside had lent their support and expertise.
When a 58-year-old man from Garia’s Briji on the southern fringes of Kolkata underwent a transplant on December 8, it was only doctors from SSKM who conducted the surgery.
“This is a kind of watershed moment for us at SSKM. A government hospital doing liver transplant all on its own is very important as this will help those who cannot afford to go to a private hospital,” said Abhijit Chowdhury, the lead doctor of the team that conducted the transplant.
“This also shows the need for technology transfer and capability transfer so that more hospitals are able to perform transplants,” said Chowdhury, the head of the hepatology department at SSKM.
Subhas Gupta, chairman of the Centre for Liver and Biliary Sciences (CLBS), was one of the doctors who joined SSKM doctors in performing liver transplants.
“Our team had trained doctors at SSKM and it is a happy moment that they are now able to do it on their own…,” he said.
Besides Chowdhury, the doctors in the SSKM team that did the transplant are Sukanta Roy, Somak Das, Tuhin Mondal, Tapas Ghosh, Saikat Bhattacharya, Dibyendu Garai and Mohiuddin Ahmed.