Noida: When his friends were busy with last-minute revisions, 19-year-old Aditya Raj made a choice few at his age would be asked to. The Class 12 student from Bihar’s Hajipur put his boards — and even his first shot at NEET on hold to save his grandmother’s life, donating a part of his liver when her condition turned critical.Sunita Devi (62) had been battling liver cirrhosis for more than a year. The illness had led to repeated hospitalisations, fluid build-up in the abdomen and growing weakness. When her health worsened, the family brought her to NCR — Max Hospital in Vaishali — where doctors found she was in an advanced stage of cirrhosis.A transplant, they said, was the only definitive treatment. And that couldn’t wait. Doctors told the family Aditya’s grandmother would die if the transplant wasn’t done at the earliest.The family did have other possible donors. Aditya’s father and aunt were both found compatible, but existing health conditions ruled them out. That left the teenager to volunteer to donate a part of his liver. But the timing of the surgery was crucial. It clashed with the CBSE Class 12 boards — Feb 17 to March 27.Since the surgery couldn’t wait, Aditya decided to skip the boards this year. And NEET too.After detailed medical, psychological and legal assessments at Max hospital, Aditya was cleared for surgery under national transplant protocols, becoming the family’s first living donor. The date of the transplant was fixed for March 12.“I was fully prepared for my Class 12 exams, but that wasn’t more important than my family. Exams can be taken again next year. So, I decided to skip them and do my bit to save my grandmother,” the teenager told TOI.Aditya, who wants to become a doctor himself, said he planned to make his first attempt at NEET this year. “That, too, will happen next year,” he added.Dr Subhash Gupta, group chairman at the Centre for Liver and Biliary Sciences at Max Healthcare, said the case was both emotionally moving and medically demanding.“What stood out was the young donor’s determination despite his academic commitments. Careful matching of the donor and recipient, meticulous preparations for the surgery and strict adherence to transplant protocols were essential to ensure a safe and successful transplant,” Dr Gupta said.Dr Rajesh Dey, director of liver transplant and biliary sciences at Max, said the procedure involved a right lobe graft weighing about 710 grams and was carried out for almost 10 hours. “Living donor liver transplantation is a complex surgery in which a portion of a healthy donor’s liver is transplanted into the recipient. Because the liver can regenerate, both donor and recipient livers gradually return to near-normal size. Donor safety remained our highest priority,” he added.Sunita, doctors said, recovered well, with stable graft function and normal liver parameters, and was discharged 14 days after surgery.Aditya, who underwent a 12-hour procedure to transplant his liver, also recovered steadily and has resumed normal daily activities.In Hajipur, they are a joint family. Aditya lives with his parents, two sisters, uncle, aunt and his grandmother.
