NEW DELHI: Doctors at Delhi’s Max Super Speaciality Hospital, Saket, performed a life-saving heart transplant surgery on a 45-year-old man from Meerut after getting the organ from a 16-year-old boy from Jaipur. The donor suffered fatal head injuries in a road accident and even after sustained efforts to revive the patient, treating doctors at Jaipur’s SMS Hospital declared him brain dead.
Following counseling, the family agreed to donate his organs. The heart transplant was performed on Wednesday night. A green corridor was created between SMS hospital and the Jaipur airport, and then between the IGI international airport and Max Super Speciality Hospital at Saket in Delhi.
From the Delhi airport, the donor heart was transported to the hospital in an ambulance through the 18.3 km stretch in 17 minutes, which ensured that the retrieved heart was transplanted within the critical 4-hour chest-tochest period. Dr Kewal Krishan, director, heart transplant and left ventricular assist devices, Max Super Speciality Hospital, led the team of doctors who carried out the heart transplant.
The recipient had been suffering from a condition called dilated cardiomyopathy due to which only 20% of his heart was functioning. The condition causes the heart to dilate reducing its pumping activity and inability to pump adequate blood to the body.
“The patient had a heart attack in January this year wherein two of his vessels were blocked. One was working only 10% due to which stenting had to be done and the second was working 30%.” “In June, the complaint increased, he experienced breathlessness and even while resting had fluid retention in legs. Investigations revealed that the patient had Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCMP),” said Dr Krishan.