Attempt to harvest liver from Mumbai donor came unstuck:Chavan

 A fresh attempt to harvest a liver for Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh came unstuck today and the senior leader passed away before doctors could carry out a surgery on the donor in Mumbai.

After the death of a liver donor in Chennai, doctors had identified another person whose family members had agreed to part with the vital organ for Deshmukh.

Accordingly, doctors from Chennai had come to Mumbai to harvest the liver from a donor, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan told reporters here.

However, even before they could conduct the operation on the donor they got the news that Deshmukh had breathed his last.

"All preparations were made for the liver to be taken from Mumbai to Chennai, but before the operation could be done we got the news around 1:40 p.m. that Deshmukh was no more," Chavan said.

Yesterday, doctors had made an attempt to harvest liver from a brain dead donor at a government hospital in Chennai. But it had proved futile as the man died before doctors could operate on him last night.