Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) has completed the Northeast’s first reported liver transplant in a government hospital, marking a major expansion of publicly available specialist healthcare in Assam. The 16-hour procedure was performed on Friday night by a team of specialist doctors, state health minister Ashok Singhal said on Saturday.
The transplant involved a 48-year-old patient from Beharbari in Assam’s Kamrup Metropolitan district. He received a portion of his liver from his 40-year-old sister. Both the recipient and the donor were in the intensive care unit and recovering under close medical supervision after the operation, according to statements from the state health minister and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Singhal said the principal of the medical college had confirmed that the operation was successful. “This is the first liver transplant in a govt healthcare sector hospital in the northeast,” he told the media. He added that, to his knowledge, only around 10 state-run medical college hospitals in the country currently perform liver transplant surgeries.
The milestone places GMCH among a limited number of government medical institutions in India undertaking complex transplant procedures. Unlike private hospitals, public medical colleges serve as referral centres for patients who may not be able to access high-cost specialist treatment elsewhere. The state government said it intends to strengthen and expand the transplant facility at GMCH.
Sarma said Assam launched its Liver Transplantation programme in 2025 with the stated aim of making complex, life-saving care available in the state’s public hospitals. “Today that decision is delivering results,” he wrote on X. He congratulated the medical team and acknowledged the donor’s role in giving the recipient a new chance at life.
The chief minister also linked the transplant to a wider expansion of advanced treatment capacity at GMCH. He said the state was building a statewide cancer care network, had brought bone marrow transplants to the medical college and would soon establish what he described as India’s first proton beam therapy unit in the public sector in Guwahati.
The government has framed these initiatives as part of an effort to make Assam a healthcare hub for eastern India. The immediate next step for the liver transplant programme is continued intensive-care monitoring of the donor and recipient, followed by efforts to strengthen the facility and expand access to such procedures through the state’s public healthcare system.
