A team of doctors from the department of Cardio-Thoracic, Heart & Lung Transplant Surgery at Yashoda Hospitals in Secunderabad successfully performed a rare and complex heart transplantation saving a 2-year-old young baby's mother suffering from end stage heart failure problem.
Interestingly, the donor is a man from Telangana and the recipient is a young lady from Andhra Pradesh. Aruna, a house wife and mother of 2-year of baby boy is hailing from Kakinada of East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh. Currently living in Pune with her husband was first diagnosed with cardi-myopathy with severe Left Ventricular (LV) dysfunction and ejection fraction (EF) (Heart pumping capacity) was only 30 per cent because of which she was suffering from shortness of breath and fatigue.
Upon learning about the problem, a team of doctors from Yashoda Hospitals led by Dr. P.V. Naresh Kumar and Dr. C. Arumugam stabilized the patient of her symptoms and prepared for the heart plantation surgery. “After learning about the patient’s condition, we confirmed a heart transplant is imminent to save her life. Immediately her name was registered in Jeevandan registry and fortunately a male donor was available which saved her life,” informed Dr. Naresh Kumar, Senior Thoracic Hearth & Lung Transplant Surgeon.
Before the availability of the donor, the patient was given anti heart failure medicines and her condition was stabilized. “Fortunately, through Jeevandan, we got a 47 years old male donor through who was declared brain dead in a road accident. It took us more than 9 hours for the successfully heart transplantation surgery and after two weeks of the surgery, the patient’s EF rate is improved to normal 64 percent and she is discharged in a healthy condition,” explained Dr. Kumar.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. G. S. Rao; managing director of Yashoda Hospitals said “This disease starts in the left ventricle LV, the heart’s main pumping chamber. The heart muscle begins to dilate (stretch) and becomes thinner and the shape of left ventricular changes. As the disease progresses, the problem spreads to the right ventricle (Right side pump of the Heart). This condition is known as biventricular failure with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension. “
This type of heart failure is usually caused in pregnant women. Such cases are very rare about 1 in 1000 pregnant women.