Mumbai's Nanavati Max Super Speciality Hospital Gives 49-Year-Old Father New Life Through Living Donor Small Bowel Transplant

Mumbai: Doctors at Nanavati Max Super Speciality Hospital, Mumbai, successfully performed a rare and complex living donor small bowel transplant offering 49-year-old Pravin Vispute, a glass factory worker from Nashik, a second chance at life. This marks the year’s first living donor intestine transplant—with the patient’s wife Jayashree,  stepping forward as the donor.

About The Transplant

The transplant was performed by Dr. Gaurav Chaubal with a multidisciplinary team of four surgeons, three anaesthetists, six senior nurses, and other trained paramedic staff. The team transplanted approximately 150 cm of Jayashree’s healthy small intestine into Vispute.

Small bowel transplants are the rarest of all abdominal transplantations. Approximately 100 small bowel transplants are performed annually across the world, of which about 7-8 are done in India. 

Discussing the case, Dr Chaubal said, “For nearly a decade,  Vispute experienced recurrent infections, fever, and debilitating stomach pains. Now, after only twenty days of the surgery, he  is on the road to a full recovery, able to eat without pain or dependence on total parenteral nutrition (TPN - a method of feeding that delivers nutrients directly into the bloodstream through a vein).” The donor— Jayashree is also back to her routine diet and a healthy life. The patient was discharged on March 20.

“The patient was diagnosed with Superior Mesenteric Artery (SMA) thrombosis, a rare and life-threatening blockage of blood flow to the small bowel. The underlying cause was a congenital hypercoagulable state—often due to deficiency in natural anti-clotting factors—that can affect individuals at any age,” said Dr Chaubal.