Telangana: Heart and lung transplant on 13-year-old

Hyderabad: A combined heart and lung transplant was carried out on a 13-year-old girl in Yashoda Hospital. The child was brought in with severely damaged lungs, making it difficult for her to breathe. The 13-year-old is from Darpalli Village in Nizamabad district. Earlier, on January 4, she suddenly fell unconscious during the morning prayers in school. Her parents Ch. Ramulu and Lakshmi rushed her to a private hospital at Nizamabad where she was evaluated for Primary Pulmo-nary Hypertension (PPH).

PPH is a rare lung disorder where blood vessels in the lungs narrow and due to this the pressure in the pulmonary artery rises. Dr P. V. Naresh Kumar senior cardiothoracic and transplant surgeon explained, “PPH is a very rare disorder. What actually causes this disease is not known. It can be due to a defective gene or gene mutation due to environmental conditions. If the patient is not treated it can lead to heart failure. The girl’s condition was critical and after evaluation a combined heart and lung transplant was recommended.” On March 25, a 27-year-old brain dead patient’s organs were retrieved and the combined heart and lung transplant was carried out. The donor had died of intracranial fluid bleeding.

The combined operation took 8 hours and the patient was kept on ventilator for 36 hours. The Telangana government paid Rs 25 lakhs for the treatment along with a donation of Rs 25 lakhs from the Yashoda Hospital Group.