Ongole: Doctors perform rare cardiac surgery on injured youth

Ongole: Miracles in healthcare happens only when the doctors come forward to take a risk in the treatment of the patient and one of them occurred at Ramesh Sanghamitra Hospital in Ongole, said its Chief Operation Officer, Dr K Harikumar Reddy.

Speaking in a press meet in the hospital on Thursday, the COO said that on January 20, an engineering student Chejarla Srihari of Ongole met with an accident and was brought to the hospital emergency. The youngster was already had fits and was in an unconscious state. Dr Srihari Reddy said that they observed a raging heart beat and falling blood pressure.

In the diagnosis with the latest equipment available in the hospital, they observed that blood surrounded the heart sac and is mounting pressure on the ventricles from expanding. A few minutes later, when the cardio thoracic surgeon Dr Sudheer reached the patient, they observed that his heart was stopping beating.

Dr Sudheer said that he found the right atrium of the heart of the patient was punctured for two inches in the accident and was the reason for the blood leak and stopped beating. Meanwhile, the hospital management took a decision to shift the machines in the operation theatre to the emergency in the ground floor, he added. As they have no time to shift the patient to the operation theatre, he said that he cut open the chest of the patient and closed the heart with sutures. After cleaning about 2 litres of blood clotted around the heart, it started to beat again, said the surgeon.

Dr Harikumar Reddy and Dr Sudheer announced that the condition of the blood leaking around the heart and mounting pressure on it is called Cardiac Tamponade, and only 16 people who experienced the condition are alive after the surgery around the world. They said Srihari is the 17th person, 2nd in the country to recover from the extremely rare condition and is the 1st person to recover from the damage to right atrium of the heart.

The hospital managing director Dr D Tirumala Reddy and the COO Dr Harikumar Reddy appreciated the team of doctors including Dr G Sudheer, Dr Srihari Reddy, Dr Vamsi Krishna, Dr Senthil Kumar, Dr Ramanji Nayak, Dr Nagamony, and others for their efforts in rescuing the patient from death. The parents of the youth, Chejarla Krishnaiah and Seshamma expressed their gratitude to the doctors with tears and celebrated the re-birthday of their son in the hospital on Thursday.