36-year-old gets new lease of life after heart transplant

Bengaluru: A 36-year-old-man from Belgaum got a new lease of life on Friday after undergoing heart transplant at Narayana Health City. His saviour was a 32-year-old man who succumbed to a traumatic brain injury he suffered in a road accident. He was admitted at Sparsh Hospital, RR Nagar. Doctors declared him brain-dead on 11 May evening and the family came forward to donate his organ.

A green corridor was created for the transportation of the heart on Wednesday night from Sparsh Hospital to Narayana Health City. A distance of 44 km was covered in a span of 39 minutes in spite of heavy traffic post rainfall.

Hailing from Belgaum district, the recipient, Annasab P Idali, a railway employee, suffered from Dilated Cardiomyopathy. He has been under the care of Dr Deepak Padmanabhan and Dr Bagirath Raghuraman for the past four months at Narayana Health City. After evaluating the patient's condition, the doctors advised the family to go for heart transplant. Soon after registering at Jeevasarthake, he received a matching heart. The transplant surgery has been successful and the patient is recovering.

"In spite of huge traffic in Bengaluru after a rainfall, it was a commendable task by traffic police. Without their help it would not have been possible to transport a live heart all the way from RR Nagar to Narayana Health City in Bommasandra within such a short span of time", said Dr Nitin Manjunath – Facility Director, Narayana Health City.

The heart retrieval and transplant was performed by a team led by Dr. Julius Punnen, Sr Consultant Heart and Lung Transplant Surgery, Dr. Varun Shetty, Sr Consultant Heart Transplant Surgery, Dr. Thiruthani Kumaran, Sr Consultant Heart & Lung Transplant Surgery along with a team of support staff.