First heart transplant performed at Safdarjung Hospital

NEW DELHI: After the family of a 62-year-old Delhi man, who was declared brain dead by doctors at the Narayana Superspeciality Hospital Gurugram, decided to donate his organs, his heart was transplanted into a 44-year-old man from Samastipur in Bihar at Safdarjung Hospital— making it the first such procedure at this central-run facility.

“The recipient was evaluated in the Department of Cardio Thoracic Vascular Surgery (CTVS) and Cardiology and diagnosed with advanced heart failure due to severe coronary artery disease in March this year,” said Dr Anubhav Gupta head of CTVS department, Safdarjung hospital. He added that the patient was put on the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation’s (NOTTO) recipient list and was allocated a heart on Wednesday. A team of doctors with assistance of an expert from AIIMS CTVS performed a successful transplant at the hospital on Thursday.

“This is the first heart transplant done by Safdarjung Hospital," said Medical Superintendent Dr B L Sherwal.

Giving details of the donor, Dr Swadesh Kumar, Medical Superintendent at Narayana Superspeciality Hospital said that Vijay Menon, who worked as a manager at a guest house in Gurugram, had reached the hospital in an unconscious state with a complaint of severe headache on May 1. He was immediately shifted to ICU following a CT scan, but his brain ceased functioning hours later due to spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage.

Recognizing him as a potential donor, the family was informed and counselled about organ donation. The family gave their approval for organ donation, saving the lives of four people.

NOTTO officials said that while his heart was given to Safdarjung Hospital, one kidney was allocated to Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute, the other kidney was given to a 36-year-old woman at Akash hospital and the liver was utilised by Narayana Hospital itself. However, his corneas were preserved.

Dr Kumar said that the donor’s liver was successfully transplanted into a 22-year-old girl suffering from Wilson’s disease (Congenital- Chronic Liver Disease). The recipient, who hails from Bhubaneswar, had been suffering since childhood because of which she never attended school. But after transplantation, she would live a normal life, said doctors.

One kidney was successfully transplanted into a young 20-year-old girl who had been on dialysis for the past 5 years. “The patient is currently in a stable condition and is expected to be discharged from the hospital within a week. Her family expressed their gratitude towards the donor and their family for giving a new lease of life to their daughter,” said Dr Rajesh Aggarwal, Chief of Kidney Transplant at Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute.

“My father was a selfless man, and he would have cherished our decision of donating his organs and giving life to other people even after his death”, said the donor's daughter Sandhya Menon.

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