Rare heart surgery done in Bangalore

bangalore: world heart day is on september 30. bangalore's heart surgeons have another feather on their caps to show on the occasion. doctors at manipal heart foundation (mhf) have performed the rastelli operation on a 27-year-old patient. such an operation is seldom, if at all, performed on a patient that age. harikumar is better now. but for years he wasn't able to speak normally.not able to eat or even sleep in peace. all because of a serious heart condition that left him breathless. in medical terms what he suffered from was a double outlet right ventricle along with ventricular septal defect and pulmonary stenosis. according to dr r.c. srivyas who along with his team carried out the surgery, ``this sub-group of patients will have both the major arteries (aorta and pulmonary) coming from the right ventricle resulting in mixing of pure and impure blood through a large hole in the wall separating the right and left pumping chambers of the heart.'' the son of a kptc engineer, harikumar was sick since the time he was three months old. many do not survive till his age. but no cure seemed to come his way. finally, in 1988 he was taken to cmc, vellore where a shunt was put in to open up the block. but soon after the block narrowed again and harikumar was strapped down by the symptoms all over again. even as his condition worsened hospitals in the city and outside turned him down. that was till dr s.s. ramesh of the heart centre at bhagawan mahaveer hospital and cardiologist dr jayaranganath referred him to dr srivyas for surgical correction. ``the best way out was to carry out the rastelli operation which is not normally carried out on people this age. it was risky, but he has done well so far,'' dr srivyas says. he explains: ``through the rastelli operation we divert the purified blood from the left ventricle which is the left sided pumping chamber of the heart to the aorta. this is done by using an artificial material inside the heart to close the hole which was responsible for the mixing of the pure and impure blood.'' harikumar breathes easy today. for him world heart day has both a positive ring and rhythmic beat to it.