VIJAYAWADA: In a rare occurrence, professor Dr. Y. Kiran Kumar of Government General Hospital (GGH) in Guntur revived the heart of a 70-year-old patient by massaging it internally.
When the patient S. Venkateswarlu of Nandanavanam village in Prakasam district arrived at Guntur GGH hospital, doctors found him suffering from a rare diaphragmatic hernia. A medical team led by highly experienced Dr. Kiran Kumar decided to operate on him.
The team found that half of the stomach, large intestine, omentum, heart, lungs, and diaphragm, which is in the middle of the stomach, had protruded from a hole in muscle and extended to the heart and lungs.
During the operation, the patient's heart stopped beating suddenly. Dr. Kiran Kumar said as the surgery had been under progress, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from above would be very risky. Hence, he put his hand through the hole in the diaphragm and started massaging the heart gently. Following this, the heart revived and became stable after a few moments.
Doctors then continued the operation. The stomach, large intestine and omentum were pulled out from the chest into the stomach. They then closed the hole in the diaphragm with a prolene mesh.
Dr. Kiran Kumar said the patient remained on a ventilator in ICU for 48 hours after the operation. After they concluded that the heart, lungs and brain had started functioning well, they removed the ventilator and started feeding fluids from the third day. The patient started walking on the third day itself. It has now been 12 days since the stitches have been removed and doctors have decided to discharge the patient.
Guntur GGH superintendent Dr. Prabhavati said it is a high point for their hospital to conduct such an operation very effectively and successfully. She congratulated Dr. Kiran Kumar and his team.
