Chennai hockey association keen to help ex-Pak captain Mansoor Ahmed get heart

CHENNAI: A day after former Pakistan hockey team captain Mansoor Ahmed sought a heart transplant in India, the

Chennai Hockey Association

volunteered help and leading surgeons in the city confirmed they had been contacted by his doctors.

“They have sent me his medical records and have asked me to help. We are looking into it,” said senior heart transplant surgeon Dr K R Balakrishnan, who is currently in Palestine helping doctors do heart procedures on children there.

Ahmed, Pakistan’s hockey captain in the 1990s, has been a heart patient for close to a decade and doctors recommended a transplant for the 49-year-old following complications.

He is being treated at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi by Dr Choudhry Pervez who advised him to go for a heart transplant and referred his case to the clinics in the US and India.

It takes anywhere between four and six months for an overseas patient to get a heart in Chennai.

A heart can be given to a foreigner only when there are no Indians on the waiting list. As per the new rules, a hospital doing the transplant on a foreigner has to give an undertaking it is not overlooking any Indian in need of heart.

It isn’t just doctors who are extending support to Ahmed. Former India captain V Baskaran, who has known Ahmed for years, said he was shocked when he read about his health condition. “We lost touch over the years. From the time I got to know about his ailment I have been trying to reach him through

Shahbaz Ahmed

, secretary of the Pakistan Hockey Federation,” Baskaran, who led India to gold in

Moscow

Olympics in 1980, told TOI on Tuesday.

Ahmed has made it clear he doesn’t need any kind financial help and that all he wants is a visa (on medical ground) from the Indian government. According to Ahmed, chief minister of

Punjab Shahbaz Sharif

has already allocated $100,000 for his treatment, and his expenses are being borne by former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi’s Foundation.

“It’s good that he has received financial support from the Punjab CM and Shahid Afridi. Even without that, we would have managed his expenses here since there are many people who have already expressed their desire to help Mansoor. Now everything depends on how smooth the visa process takes place. His heath is deteriorating fast and we need to act immediately. I hope Mansoor returns to normal life very soon,” Baskaran added.

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