Three months ago, Mukesh Kumar Shaw, 40, and his family were desperately looking for someone to donate a portion of the liver so that he could live.

The search bore fruit on January 12 when Mukesh, suffering from cirrhosis and liver failure, found a donor — a person who had died in an accident.

“The call came around 7pm... the doctor asked if we were ready for a transplant,” Mukesh ’s sister Durga said on Friday.

The Behala resident was operated on at Medica Superspecialty Hospital.

Doctors at the hospital said on Friday he was on the path to recovery and should return to his normal life in about three months. He works for a central government undertaking and is the sole earner in the family.

“He had jaundice and fluid accumulation in his abdomen. Apart from cirrhosis, he was suffering from acute liver failure. His mother and sister wanted to donate livers but because the parameters did not match the transplant was not possible,” P.K. Sethy, director, Medica Institute of Gastrointestinal Diseases, said.

The liver of a brain-dead youth was used in the transplant. “A day after the surgery, we could meet my brother,” Durga said.

Mukesh said he was “waiting keenly” to resume office.

Cadaver donation in Bengal is still to pick up but the number of such cases are increasing, according to state health department officials.

Till a few months ago, surgeons from other states would conduct transplant surgeries in the state, doctors said.

“Now, hospitals are setting up their own teams in Calcutta,” Sethy said.