Sasikala's husband Natarajan undergoes liver, kidney transplant

Chennai, Oct 4: Jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala's husband M Natarajan has undergone liver and kidney transplant at a city hospital with the organs harvested from a brain-dead youth, the hospital said. Natarajan, 74, had been undergoing treatment at a corporate hospital for the past few days.

The liver and kidney of Karthik, a "young gentleman" from Thanjavur, were allocated to Natarajan, who was on "top" of the combined liver-kidney transplanting waiting list, the Gleneagles Global Health City hospital, where Natarajan is receiving treatment, said in an official statement.

Karthik was brought here recently by his family with severe head injuries, among others. Despite treatment, he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced brain-dead yesterday at the hospital, it said. The family of the deceased was 'counselled' on organ donation and they consented to donate his liver, heart, lung and kidneys, it said.

As per the guidelines of the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu, the liver, heart, lung and one kidney were allocated to Gleneagles Global Health City as this was an in- house organ donation, it said The other kidney was allocated to the common pool as per regulations. The heart was allocated to a 43-year-old man from Tamil Nadu and the lung to a 62-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh.

"The liver and kidney were allocated to a 74-year-old gentleman who was on top of the combined liver-kidney transplanting waiting list," it said, in an apparent reference to Natarajan. All operations went on well and the patients were recovering well in the Intensive Care Unit,the release said.

Sources in the T T V Dhinakaran camp of AIADMK also confirmed that Natarajan had undergone liver and kidney transplantation from a brain-dead donor. Earlier in the day, Dhinakaran had said, "I have received information that the liver and kidney transplant surgery has been performed on uncle (Natarajan)." Sasikala had sought a 15-day parole from the Karnataka Prisons authorities to meet Natarajan, but the plea was rejected on technical grounds.

PTI