Lone survivor dependent on foreign medicines

LAHORE - At the time when Punjab government seems quite determined to restart liver transplantation in the province, a 40-year-old man, the lone survivor of liver transplantation in the country, owes his life to the medicines being imported from abroad.

Saleem Jehangir Marri of Kohlu Agency Balochistan is the only patient out of those six who have undergone liver transplantation in the country and is still alive. The rests of them had expired during or after the transplantation.

The reason for his survivor is he gets regular supplies of medicines from India that has been prescribed by the local doctors. Saleem dejectedly said that he had tried his best but failed to find the medicines from any part of the country.

Saleem Jehangir was operated upon successfully in a private hospital of the City a couple of years ago and is quite healthy now.

Earlier five other liver transplants were performed in the country - two in Karachi and three in Lahore. In Lahore, these operations were performed in Children’s Hospital, Hamid Latif Hospital and Masood Hospital.