LAHORE: An intensive care unit (ICU) dedicated for the post-operative care of the patients undergoing liver transplant at the Shaikh Zayed Hospital has been lying closed for the last six months or so for want of staff.

“The closure of this six-bed dedicated ICU resulted in the death of a woman five days after she underwent a successful liver transplant procedure,” a source at the hospital told Dawn on Wednesday.

According to experts, liver transplant and neurosurgery are the most sensitive procedures requiring specialised post-operative care at dedicated ICUs.

On receiving complaints, the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team (CMIT) had visited the infirmary and directed its administration to make it operational. The direction was complied with, but the unit had to be closed again after remaining operational only for five days for want of staff.

Some 60 employees, including nurses and other paramedical staff, were recruited for the six-bed ICU some eight months ago. However, all these employees have been posted in other wards of Shaikh Zayed or other hospitals of Lahore.

The diseased part of the liver of Ishrat, 59, was replaced with a healthy portion donated by her daughter on Friday (Oct 21).

“The transplanted part started responding the next day. However, she had to be kept at the general ICU having insufficient application of standard and isolation precautions. As a result, she contracted lungs infection there which could not be controlled and she died on last Tuesday night,” said the source.

An attendant of Arooj, the donor-daughter of Ishrat, who is still at the ICU, said her aunt was a resident of the Walled City.

“We paid Rs3.5 million for the operation to the hospital administration,” she said. Shaikh Zayed Hospital Chairman Prof Dr Farid Ahmad Khan said since liver transplant was one of the most complex procedures in the surgical field, it had known mortality and morbidity rate.

“Some 90 successful liver transplant procedures have been carried out at the Shaikh Zayed Hospital so far which is the only public sector infirmary carrying out such a complex surgeries and which is at par with the best centres in the world namely Pittsburgh and Singapore where the success rate is 90 per cent.

“Efforts are under way to further improve conditions at the ICU. With the grant given by the Punjab government, new modular with laminar air flow are being built along with refurbished ICU. All this is being done to fulfill the increasing demand for liver transplant procedures as well as to meet the world standards by the end of the fiscal year,” said Prof Khan.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2016