Dr Mohamed Rela, who has flown in from London Sunday morning to help in the treatment of Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Pramod Mahajan, is one of the world foremost liver transplant specialists.

Rela heads a transplant team at the King's College Hospital, London.

The BJP leader, who was shot by his brother Pravin at his Mumbai home on Saturday, has extensive injuries to his liver. Doctors at the Hinduja Hospital have been working round-the-clock to contain bleeding from the liver. Dr Rela and his team have been called in to explore the possibility of a liver transplant – if that is possible given the state Mahajan is in.
The 47-year-old has more that 800 liver transplants to his credit. His liver transplant on a five-day-old Irish infant got him an entry to the Guiness Book of Records in 2000.

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The surgeon was born in Mayiladuthurai village in Tamil Nadu. He got his medical degree from Stanley Medical College, Chennai. After completing an MS from the same college, he went to the United Kingdom and got another MS and then got an FRCS in 1988.

Dr Rela also has signed an agreement with Global Hospitals,  Hyderabad, to provide for living related liver transplantation surgery free of cost to children below the age of 12.

He has also pioneered 'split liver' transplant surgery, which involves the division of a healthy donor organ to help transplant it to two patients. He is also an expert at live donor transplants.

He has published more than 100 scientific papers related to liver transplantation. And helped train surgeons and set up liver transplant programmes around the world.