Assam health minister Ashok Singhal briefed reporters on Saturday about a 16-hour overnight operation at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital in Guwahati — the first liver transplant carried out at a state-run facility anywhere in the Northeast. Singhal conveyed that the institution had performed the procedure the previous night, marking its first such operation, and that sixteen hours elapsed before the surgical team brought it to a close.
Both the organ donor and the recipient were being monitored in intensive care following the procedure. The surgical team, including the lead surgeon, described the operation as uncomplicated.
Singhal noted that no government-run hospital across the Northeast had previously performed a liver transplant, and that, according to his remarks, fewer than ten state-run medical colleges anywhere in the country have that capacity. He indicated that a start had been made and that the aim over the coming days was to carry the effort forward.
The minister expressed hopes for a full recovery for both the transplant recipient and the organ donor. Singhal noted that the outcome should not be taken as an indication that such transplants are ready for routine practice, describing it instead as "a milestone." The capacity to perform transplants on a near-daily basis has not yet been reached, he said, and supporting infrastructure for liver transplant procedures still needs to be put in place.
Earlier in the week, the team carried out a robotic heart procedure, which concluded without complications. Singhal told the gathering that Assam was charting its path ahead with a reformist outlook.
The liver transplant procedure drew on a collaborative effort across specialties, with the operating team including physicians who had travelled from other states. Dr Senthil Kumar, travelling from Andhra, led the effort alongside a team of locally based doctors. Singhal noted that liver transplantation requires a coordinated team of surgeons rather than any one individual working alone, and that a procedure of this nature draws on the coordinated involvement of multiple supporting disciplines — among them anaesthesia and radiology — along with a range of other allied departments.
On the subject of affordable healthcare, Singhal outlined efforts underway to expand access to medical services at lower cost for residents of Assam, citing the state's transplant programme as one indicator of progress. He noted in a statement that the administration was working toward a situation where people across Assam could obtain quality medical treatment without prohibitive expense.
Transplant surgery involving kidneys has been carried out at a considerable volume. Figures from the previous year place kidney transplant numbers at somewhere between 33 and 34 procedures, with each operation drawing costs in the range of Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. Both the Pradhan Mantri Arogya Nidhi and the Mukhya Mantri Arogya Nidhi schemes extend their provisions to cover such procedures, and Singhal noted that the operations were being performed at a low cost to patients.
When asked whether the existing legislation and its "near relatives" eligibility rules were generating procedural difficulties for kidney transplant patients, Singhal indicated that no change to the norm in Assam was under consideration. He explained that the current framework requires a direct familial connection — such as between spouses or among siblings — before a transplant can proceed, and noted that removing the requirement would make it harder to track the flow of donations between parties. He said there were no plans to introduce such a measure in Assam.
Questioned about post-mortem kidney allocation, Singhal noted uncertainty over how long a donated organ stays viable after a donor's death, and pointed out that such situations arise only rarely. He remarked that organ donation from deceased individuals — covering vital organs such as the heart, liver, and kidneys — had not yet become a reality in the state, even as eye donation continued to draw participation from many residents.
