Hoor, a tiny baby girl, was the world to her parents. Her birth completed their family, and there was nothing that they could want more of.
The one-year-old infant, although the apple of eye to her parents, was not very lucky when it came to her physical health.
This baby girl from Saudi Arabia was detected to have biliary atresia. It is a disease caused due to an obstruction in the passage of the bile duct.
Biliary atresia is a fatal disease that ultimately leads to liver failure. Without corrective surgery, the life of the child suffering from biliary atresia is threatened.
When Hoor got diagnosed with this abnormality, her parent’s plight could not be quantified. They were at the edge to do anything possible to save their child.
A surgery was arranged in the country, which unfortunately turned out to be a failure
Hoor’s parents then decided to come down to India to try their luck.
India offers quality treatment in such delicate cases. The doctors here are very experienced and well-trained to perform complex surgeries.
Hoor, along with her parents, reached Artemis Hospital in Gurgaon, one of the best hospitals in India.
After getting diagnosed again, Dr. Giriraj Bora, the chief consultant of the liver transplant department in the hospital, took almost no time to detect that the young baby needed surgery to be performed on her.
But, devils own luck!
Hoor was just an infant, and such a complex surgery was not a piece of cakewalk for both the patient and the doctor.
The major challenge was to obtain a cadaver vein donor.
But alas! Such surgery was not possible in India.
The child was so small and weighed only 5 kg (200 gm). To lay hands on such a small vein was not feasible.
The liver doctors in the hospital suggested a bovine jugular vein (animal vein) transplant.
Hoor’s parents were ready to take even the slightest chance, and thus, they agreed to the transplant.
Performing a bovine transplant in a malnourished infant was a task on its own.
This surgery, although recorded to be the first of its kind in liver transplant in Delhi NCR.
With immense hope, the doctors conducted the surgery.
A mark was made with the success of the surgery. The doctors at Artemis agreed that this was a very rare surgery where an animal vein was used for the first time in the world to revive a patient.
The success of the story speaks for itself. The challenges faced by every individual in the situation were immense, but their zeal to not give up made history and saved the life of an infant who had yet a world of her own to make.