Vadodara: Over a year ago, the Mistry family in Padra had no clue on why their newly born kid wasn’t just as cheerful as other kids of his age.It was only after diagnosis that the Mistrys came to know that the baby – Ram – was born with a rare congenital condition ‘Biliary Atersia’ – a rare disease in newborns where the liver’s bile ducts are absent and require early surgical correction.Within a few months of his birth, Ram developed advanced liver cirrhosis which later progressed to end-stage liver disease. But thanks to early intervention of doctors and his maternal aunt who donated portion of her liver, Ram last year became one of the youngest and smallest babies to receive a liver transplant in entire Western India.“Biliary Atresia is a rare congenital condition that blocks the bile flow from the liver which causes irreversible damage and scarring of the liver cells. The living donor-transplant came from the baby’s aunt who donated a portion of her healthy liver to the child. In such cases liver transplant is the only option,” said Dr Aabha Nagral, consultant, hepatology (adult and paediatrics) at a Navi Mumbai hospital, where the critical paediatric liver transplant surgery was performed in February last year when Ram was one year old.

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