Accident Victim's Gift Powers Bengaluru's 1st Heart Transplant at BGS Global Hospitals

BENGALURU: The New Year began on a momentous note for cardiac patients in Bengaluru as doctors in the city performed a live heart transplant on Saturday.

Coordinating with several agencies, doctors placed the heart of a 21-year-old flower merchant inside a 29-year-old goldsmith from West Bengal. Doctors at BGS Global Hospitals and MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital were involved in transplanting a live heart in an operation that lasted two hours and 45 minutes.

On Thursday, flower merchant Balaji and two others were on a motorbike when they met with an accident. Balaji, who suffered a severe head injury, was rushed to hospital. He was declared brain-dead around 7 pm on Friday. His mother volunteered to donate his organs. The Zonal Coordination Committee for Organ Transplantation in Karnataka identified a goldsmith from Hoogly, waiting for a heart transplant for two months, for the donation.

“The patient is doing well,” Dr Anand Subrahmanyam, senior cardiac surgeon at BGS Global, said. Not many patients are aware of the transplant option. Fortunately, there is growing awareness, he observed. The goldsmith was diagnosed with heart failure symptoms three years ago, and was unable to work and support his family.

Doctors from West Bengal referred him to Bengaluru. He arrived two months ago and was on the waiting list. Medical Team The transplant was performed by a team of 15 senior cardiac surgeons, including Dr Anand Subrahmanyam, Dr Manoj S P and Dr Bharath Dubey. A transplant surgery requires a team of highly skilled surgeons, technicians, infrastructure and diligent coordination, Subrahmanyam said.

“The patient requires to be on intensive monitoring for rejection and infection, and immune suppressive drugs are administered to prevent the body from rejecting the new heart,” he said. The patient will be discharged in eight to 10 days and will need to take extreme precautions against infections, while also taking immune suppressive drugs for over a year, he explained.

K U Manjula, Chief Transplant Coordinator, said, “We spoke to the family and made them understand that they get no money for their service. At 7 pm on Friday, we took a second declaration and got the mother to sign papers. His heart, kidneys, corneas and liver were donated.” As on Saturday, 1,477 patients were on the waiting list for heart transplants.

Doctors look for many things, such as blood group and body weight, to match before replacing a heart. A transplant cannot be done between an adult and a child, and in multi-organ infection cases (cancer and HIV).  Bengaluru has helped two other transplants in the recent past.

In September, a heart was sent from BGS Global to Fortis Malar in Chennai. Another such transplant, to the same hospital in Chennai, was facilitated by Manipal Hospital in December.  Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the surgery as the city's first live heart transplant.

In a rare case, dual surgery for spinal tuberculosis (TB) and liver transplant was done at Global Hospitals, Mumbai. First of its kind in the world.

Due to his dual chronic illness and declining health, Kamal Kapoor had lost all hopes for life. Having lost 40 kg in five months and vomiting blood, Mr Kapoor needed an immediate liver transplant, but couldn’t get one as it was detected that he had secondary kidney failure and spinal tuberculosis. He also weighed 130 kg, which made it impossible for him to undergo the procedure.However, city doctors made sure that Mr Kapoor was on his feet against in just a week. In a rare case, dual surgery for spinal tuberculosis (TB) and liver transplant was done within a week even when the path looked bleak for the doctors. Mr Kapoor’s son, Nikul, donated part of his liver to his father. Nikul, who was pursuing first year of his Bachelors in Commerce till earlier this year, decided to give up the course due to his father’s health. He will be resuming studies when the new session starts in 2015.

“While Mr Kapoor was taking treatment for liver failure, he started experiencing pain in his back. On further investigation, compression fracture and disc prolapse of the spine was found,” said Dr Vishal Peshattiwar, spine surgeon from Global Hospital.

He underwent a vertebroplasty surgery for compression fracture, but it did not improve his condition. A subsequent MRI and biopsy revealed the presence of an abscess around the spine, indicating TB. As standard TB medicine may be toxic to the liver, he was prescribed a modified regimen of anti-TB medicine. During this period, Mr Kapoor’s back pain had aggravated and he was bedridden for almost five months.

“However, this was a blessing in disguise for him as he lost 40 kg in this period. Earlier, because of excess weight, he had no choice but to wait for cadaveric liver transplant. But now, he was suitable for a living donor transplant,” said Dr Mohammed Rela, a liver transplant surgeon, from Global Hospital.

Though Mr Kapoor’s condition was serious, the spina; team decided to use an innovative and minimally invasive spine surgical technique.

This surgery enabled Mr Kapoor to walk within two days after the surgery

Source: Asian Age