KG Hospital in Coimbatore achieved a significant medical milestone by successfully performing the first-ever heart transplantation on a 38-year-old male patient from Gudalur.
The transplanted heart, obtained from a brain-dead woman in Erode district, is functioning well post-operatively. The patient is under close observation, and the success is attributed to the expertise of Chairman Padma Shri Dr. G. Bakthavathsalam and the dedicated medical team.
The donor, 51-year-old Manjula, suffered a fatal road accident and was declared brain dead at Perundurai Government Medical College Hospital. Following medical protocols, her heart was harvested and swiftly transferred to KG Hospital, where meticulous preparations had been made for the transplantation. The recipient, facing heart failure, received the donor heart on November 4, 2023, and the medical team worked tirelessly until November 5, 2023.
Dr. Bakthavathsalam expressed his joy and gratitude to the transplant team and KG Hospital staff for their exceptional coordination. The Chairman has issued a statement addressing the emerging “heart attack pandemic” following the challenges posed by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Alarming statistics indicate a minimum annual death toll of 5 lakh due to heart attacks, with fatalities linked to ventricular fibrillation and ventricular bradycardia.
Ventricular fibrillation, characterized by irregular heartbeats affecting the ventricles, demands immediate medical attention. Similarly, ventricular bradycardia, a condition of a below-normal heart rate, poses a risk of death if hospitalization is delayed, resulting in heart muscle infarction ranging from 10-15 per cent.
Dr. Bakthavathsalam emphasizes the critical stage of heart failure when 40 per cent of heart muscles die. KG Hospital’s recent achievement in heart transplantation places it among the 60 hospitals in the country capable of such procedures. However, with 2,00,000 patients on the waitlist for heart transplantation, the availability of cadaver hearts is dwindling.
The Chairman advocates a proactive approach to tackle this crisis, asserting that prevention is superior to cure for India’s 140 crore population.
He calls for establishing 10,000 additional cath labs and 5,000 more heart bypass surgery centers in non-governmental or private hospitals to meet the escalating demand.
