The Medical Trust hospital in Kochi wrote a new chapter in the medical history of the Kerala when a group of doctors successfully performed the first heart transplantation in Kerala.

P A Abraham, a 34-year-old Haripad native received a new lease of life with this surgery, which used the heart of K K Sukumaran who was certified brain-dead after a road accident. Abraham is now in the post-operative ward and he will be removed from the ventilator on Wednesday and will need three weeks of hospitalisation.

The transplantation team consisted of 12 senior doctors including Dr Jose Chacko Periapuram, chief cardiac surgeon, Dr Sajy V Kuruttukulam and Dr Gopalakrishna S Bhat, cardiologists, Dr K Vinodan, head of the Department of Cardiac Anesthesia, Dr Jacob, cardiac anesthetist and Dr RR Ravi, head of the department of neuro surgery.

“There is a 60 to 70 per cent guarantee of 10 years for the patient, but we have a person now in America who has passed 22 years,” said Dr. Jose Chacko, who has been part of transplantation surgeries in various hospitals abroad.

The patient will have to take some medicines for his lifetime, and the dose of the medicines will be reduced gradually. There will be regular follow-up by doctors to detect even the slight signs of rejection by the body.

The surgery costs Rs. 4 to 5 lakh and the monthly medical expense will come to around Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Apollo Hospital and Madras Medical Mission are the other hospitals, which have performed heart transplantation in India, and so far there have been over 40 such surgeries.