Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: After losing her two elder sons to a rare genetic disorder, the wife of an Army personnel from Jammu and Kashmir donated a part of her liver to save her youngest child, an eight-year-old boy suffering from severe liver failure due to Wilson’s disease. The story of the mother’s sacrifice was shared by doctors ahead of Mother’s Day.Badal Choudhary, a Class 4 student, was suffering from Wilson’s disease, a rare inherited disorder in which excessive copper builds up in the body, severely damaging organs such as the liver and brain if left untreated.Doctors at Marengo Asia Hospitals, Faridabad, said the child was brought to the hospital in critical condition after treatment elsewhere failed to improve his health. His jaundice had become extremely severe and his abdomen was filled with infected fluid.Dr Punit Singla, program clinical director and head of liver transplant and HPB Surgery at the hospital, said the child’s jaundice had become extremely severe and blood tests showed his liver was failing, making an immediate liver transplant necessary.“The family had already lost two sons to the same disease and was devastated seeing their third child battling for life,” he said.With no time to lose, the child’s 40-year-old mother, Renu Choudhary, volunteered to donate a portion of her liver after being found medically fit for transplant.Doctors performed the complex liver transplant surgery in December 2025, a procedure that lasted nearly 12 to 13 hours. A small portion of the mother’s liver was transplanted into the child.Both mother and son recovered successfully after the surgery and the child was discharged three weeks later. Doctors said Badal is now healthy and living a normal life.Wilson’s disease is considered rare and is often difficult to diagnose in the early stages because symptoms can mimic other liver and neurological disorders. Experts say timely diagnosis and treatment are critical to prevent irreversible organ damage.Dr Navneet Singh Chhabra, facility director at the hospital, said the successful transplant reflected advances in liver care and transplant medicine that can help save critically ill children when intervention is done in time.
