My Story | Life after liver donation

It was December 2021. Amarnath Keshavamurthy lay anticipatedly in the operating room of a Bengaluru hospital, awaiting a 12-hour liver transplant surgery. He was donating his liver to his seven-year-old son Vishnusharan. In 2020, Vishnusharan was diagnosed with urea cycle disorder, a genetic disorder causing the accumulation of ammonia in the blood. Ammonia is a waste product formed during the digestion of protein. In a urea cycle, ammonia is broken down into urea by the liver enzymes and expelled as urine. A deficiency in these enzymes is called urea cycle disorder which causes a build-up of ammonia which is toxic to the body. Vomiting, fatigue and abdominal pain became Vishnusharan’s constant companions, with frequent hospitalisations to lower his ammonia levels.