Dying while giving life: The heartbreaking tragedy of a living donor death

Kamini Komkar, a 42-year-old home maker from Pune’s Hadapsar area, was in perfect health. So perfect that she was considered fit enough to donate a part of her liver to her husband Bapu, who was suffering from advanced liver disease.

By undergoing a surgical procedure to remove part of her liver and transplant into her husband, she probably believed she was going to save his life. As with most live liver donors, she probably expected to recover within weeks and lead a normal life.

But things did not quite turn out that way at Sahyadri Hospitals on August 15. Bapu Komkar died within hours of his surgery. Given that it is a complex major surgery on an already sick individual, liver transplant recipients have a mortality rate of 10% to 20% in the first few weeks.

But for the Komkars, something worse was in store. Around a week after her surgery Kamini Komkar went into what has been described as sudden shock and also died. This is very unusual. She was a healthy person. That is what makes this tragedy particularly shocking – and a matter of public concern.

Around the world, liver transplantation is an established procedure with a high success rate. In the West, the large...

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