Donated heart saves Bagalkot man

The heart was transported on Thursday night from Apollo BGS Hospital, Mysuru to Narayana Health City, Bengaluru with the help of green corridor.

BENGALURU: A 38-year-old man from Bagalkot got a new lease of life on Friday after undergoing a heart transplant. The organ was donated by a 28-year-old man from Mysuru who had succumbed to a brain injury and was declared brain dead on Thursday. The latter’s family had consented for the organ donation.
The patient was suffering from a complex condition - congenitally corrected transposition of great arteries, severe biventricular dysfunction, class IV heart failure and was on medical management for the last nine months.

“It is the left ventricle which pumps blood to the entire body while the right ventricle pumps to the lungs. In this case it was the opposite,  causing a problem,” said Dr. Julius Punnen, Heart & Lung Transplant Surgeon, Narayana Health City.  

As his condition could only be improved through a heart transplant, the doctors requested him to register at Jeevasarthake, the state organ transplant body. Fortunately, he received a matching heart.

The heart was transported on Thursday night from Apollo BGS Hospital, Mysuru to Narayana Health City, Bengaluru with the help of green corridor. A distance of 170 kms was covered in a span of 2 hours 15 minutes.

The patient, belonging to the lower economic strata, was a beneficiary of a Health Scheme run by Government of Karnataka called Vajpayee Arogyashree Scheme under the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST). The Vajpayee Arogyashree Scheme provides health insurance for below poverty line(BPL) families of Karnataka in a phased manner. With this, the transplant is the first to be performed under the Vajpayee Arogyashree Scheme.

The surgery was performed in four hours.

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