A 42-year-old comatose woman suffering from acute liver failure got a new lease of life after her husband donated a portion of his liver.

Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi, where the transplant surgery was performed on April 3, claimed that this was the first time in south India that a liver transplant was carried out from a living donor.

The woman, Lucy Raju, developed jaundice due to an unidentified cause. Despite treatment by Ayurvedic drugs, her jaundice continued to intensify and she was ultimately admitted to AIMS, where she was diagnosed with fulminant hepatic failure, Dr Prem Nair, medical director, AIMS and Dr S Sudheendran, liver transplant surgeon, told a press meet.

Lucy's family was informed that she needed a live transplant since her own liver was more or less entirely damaged, they said. She was already slipping into coma from liver failure and the only way to obtain a liver for transplant was to persuade any of her relatives to donate part of their liver and Raju, her husband, agreed.

Lucy was admitted to the hospital on April 1 and had to be put on the ventilator immediately as she became comatose, Dr Sudheendran said. The procedure was carried out in a 13 hour-long surgery, performed by a multidisciplinary team of doctors from Amrita.

The doctors said a major portion of Raju's liver was removed and transplanted into his wife. As Raju's liver resumed its functions in Lucy's body, the results on Lucy were dramatic, they said.

Within 72 hours she regained consciousness and was out of the ventilator. She was discharged from the hospital 24 days later while her husband was discharged after two weeks and was almost back to normal activities now, Dr Nair said.