City doctors perform rare heart transplant

Hyderabad: Century Hospitals, leading mid-sized healthcare provider in Hyderabad has given a new lease of life to a young man by transplanting a new heart in the patient’s body with the support from Jeevandhan network. The procedure was an expensive surgery performed at no-cost to the patient’s family under the Aarogyasri scheme. Dr I Gangadhara Rao, Chairman, Century Hospitals, Dr Hemanth Kaukuntla, Chief Cardio Thoracic Surgeon and Vice Chairman, Dr Praveen Nandagiri, Director- Heart Transplant program at Century hospitals presented the patient and surgery details in the presence of Dr Swarnalatha, Chairperson, Jeevandhan, at a press conference on Sunday at Hyderabad. 

Linga Swamy (29), a school bus driver by profession and a resident of Gundrampalli village of Nalgonda district was diagnosed with Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCMP), a condition under which the heart becomes weak for unknown reasons and its ability to pump blood (normal ejection fraction is 65- 70%, and under this condition it was down to 25-40%) to all the organs gets reduced. As a result of this, Linga Swamy started experiencing shortness of breath, and the situation could lead to multi-organ failure and affect kidneys, liver, intestines subsequently.

Linga Swamy condition was monitored on a regular basis and was advised to be ready for a heart transplant at a short notice of less than 24 hours. And in November this year, the procedure was performed successfully post a mid-night approval from all statutory and regulatory authorities concerned. The recipient was put on heart lung bypass and on arrival of the donor heart in the hospital and having examined it thoroughly, the procedure was completed in three hours and 20 min, from the time of retrieval and completion of transplant (the process is called cold ischemia and the same must be done in under 4 hours for successful outcome).

Dr Hemanth Kaukuntla, Vice Chairman, Century Hospital, said, “Aarogyasri , has been helping people in the below poverty line category, in utilising the services by the corporate hospitals, for high end surgeries and medical treatments. A big thank to Telangana Jeevndhan, headed by its Chairperson, Dr Swarnalatha, for her selfless services, in increasing the awareness for organ donation and also facilitating the donor and recipient hospitals in delivering the services without any hurdles. Because of her and her team, Telangana stands second in the terms of organ donation, in a short span of its inception.”