BELAGAVI: A 17-year-old boy got a new lease of life after undergoing a successful heart transplant by doctors at KLES Dr Prabhakar Kore Hospital in Belagavi. The family of a 52-year-old brain dead man from Kolhapur donated the heart to the boy.
This is the second successful heart transplant by the KLES team. The earlier one was conducted in February 2018. Briefing mediapersons on Tuesday, Chief Cardiac Surgeon of the hospital Dr Richard Saldanha said the boy was diagnosed with ‘dilated cardiomyopathy’, a condition where heart muscles weaken and do not pump blood.
“The boy was on oxygen and recommended for heart transplant after registering with ‘Jeevsarthakathe’, Karnataka’s organ transplant authority,” Dr Saldanha, who headed the team, said.
Accordingly, the heart of the brain dead man from Kolhapur who was admitted in the hospital was chosen. Dr Veeresh Manvi, Dr Kothiwale and his team counselled his relatives who voluntarily consented for the organ donation.
Though brain dead, his heart was functioning well. After its retrieval, doctors took up the heart transplant on the boy by doing a surgery that lasted seven hours on February 26. “The recipient has accepted the heart well and all the medical parameters are found to be well within normal limits,” doctors said.
Dr Mohan Gan, Dr Kiran Kurkure, Dr Ravi Ghatnatti and Dr Praveen Tambrallimath were part of the team of doctors that performed the cardiothoracic surgery successfully. On Tuesday, 25 days after the heart transplant, the recipient was walking around and in good health. He is progressing towards recovery with the donor heart functioning normally with no evidence of infection or rejection.
KLES Chairman Dr Prabhakar Kore and Medical Director of KLES Dr M V Jali congratulated the team, expressing gratitude to the donor’s family.
“The donor’s family has set an example in times when families are reluctant to come forward to donate organs and save the lives of the needy,” Dr Kore said.
About 50,000 people across the nation need a heart transplant. "KLES Heart Centre with its medical infrastructure can match the best of the hospitals around the globe,” Dr Saldanha asserted.