Bengaluru: A beating heart and an 11 minute journey

Bengaluru: A forty-year-old male security guard working in an ATM at Axis Bank in the city was given a second chance at life as he underwent a successful heart transplantation surgery at Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research on Saturday.

“The patient was diagnosed with severe heart dysfunction and dilated cardiomyopathy. In simple terms, his heart had become enlarged and he had difficulty breathing even when he walked for very short distances.  His ejection fraction or pumping capacity was only 20 per cent. He had been in the hospital for a couple of months, but symptoms persisted in spite of  medications. Under these circumstances, heart transplantation is usually recommended,” said Dr C.N. Manjunath, Director of the institute. He was waitlisted for heart transplantation with the zonal committee for an eligible donor, he added.

Manjunath told Deccan Chronicle, “Meanwhile we were informed that a 30-year-old male patient was admitted to Manipal Hospital on Friday after suffering a head injury from a fall from the roof top was declared to be brain dead and his relatives decided to donate his potential organs to an eligible patient.” The blood group was a match with the recipient and his heart was found to be normal in the echocardiography test.

“With the help of the Old Airport Road Traffic Police, a Green Corridor, which is a signal free pathway, was created and the donor’s heart was transported from Manipal Hospital to Jayadeva Hospital at 12 am on Saturday morning in just about 11 minutes,” he informed.