GIMS hospital performs over 1100 free liver transplants, marks World Liver Day with call for prevention

SUKKUR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Apr, 2026) The Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) Hospital, Gambat, on Saturday performed approximately 1,100 successful liver transplants free of charge, making it the country’s largest liver transplant program.

Speaking on the occasion of World Liver Day, Prof Dr Abdul Wahab Dogar, Program Director of Liver Transplant at GIMS, said an estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide lived with a chronic liver condition, and around two million lives were lost to liver disease each year, officials informed.

“Because liver disease often develops silently, many people are unaware of having the condition until it has progressed to an advanced stage. However, up to 92pc of cases can be prevented through improved health policies and lifestyle changes,” he said.

Dr Dogar said the World Liver Day campaign underscored simple daily habits to protect the liver: balanced eating, regular physical activity, less alcohol, and routine liver checks. He advised people to eat fewer ultra-processed foods, reduce excess saturated fat, stay physically active most days of the week, cut down alcohol or avoid it if liver disease was already present, not ignore repeated abnormal liver tests, and seek regular checks if they had obesity, diabetes, or family history.

He credited the Sindh government and GIMS Director Dr Raheem Bux Bhatti for supporting the initiative, which he said had enabled the hospital to provide free treatment to patients from across Pakistan and abroad. “This historic achievement has been successfully carried out at a public sector health facility,” he said.

Patients from different districts of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir, and Afghanistan have benefited from GIMS’s free liver transplant program, he added.

The Liver Transplant Department at GIMS was established in January 2016, with the first transplant performed in April that year. Initially, international surgeons from Germany and other countries conducted surgeries. Over time, GIMS developed an in-house team of experts now handling the procedures.

The Liver Transplant Centre at GIMS is equipped with state-of-the-art machinery and comprises 60-bed wards, a 30-bed ICU, a 10-bed liver emergency, six new operating theatres, and 80 rooms. It also performs other transplants and treats various diseases, Dr Dogar said.

He said the success rate of liver transplants at GIMS was 90pc, comparable to developed countries. The transplant is provided at no cost to patients, funded by the Sindh government, which he said had alleviated financial and logistical burdens previously associated with seeking treatment abroad.

According to our Director Dr Bhatti’s vision, he said that the GIMS has become a model for the country and a symbol of humanitarian efforts. GIMS embodies the true spirit of public service in Sindh, where humanity and compassion take centre stage.

On infection control, Dr Dogar highlighted the importance of strict practices in improving patient outcomes. He said GIMS had introduced special panels to reconstruct ICU walls, helping maintain a safer and more controlled environment, reducing infection risk and improving safety for liver transplant patients.

In a recent milestone, a team of GIMS surgeons successfully conducted simultaneous liver and kidney transplant surgeries on a single patient. Noman Tariq from Muzaffargarh, who had arrived at GIMS with compound liver and kidney disease, underwent both transplants after tests showed he required them urgently.

“Following the surgery, the patient has stabilised but is being kept under observation,” Dr Dogar said. Director GIMS Dr Rahim Bux Bhatti termed the simultaneous twin transplants a “new chapter in the history of Sindh,” adding that the procedures were carried out free of charge.

Tariq thanked the Sindh government, GIMS surgeons, and Dr Bhatti for helping him overcome health issues that had incapacitated him for the past few months.

The institute’s commitment to providing free, quality healthcare in rural Sindh has attracted patients from all provinces, including Azad Kashmir, Afghanistan, and other Asian countries, officials said.