Nakul was forced to leave school after he was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy.
The story of the 15-year-old Nashik boy Nakul Chavan, who believed that 2016 would bring him better health and happiness, is indeed heartbreaking. Seven months after being on the list of the hospital for a heart transplant that never materialised, Nakul finally gave up the fight a week ago. But in his death, he left the state's medical authorities and its people several questions to answer.
Nakul was diagnosed with an end-stage heart disease and the only way out of it is a heart transplant. His family was hoping for the best but because of the lack of a cadaver donation programme in the state, it was not to be. dna published a series of stories on Nakul for getting a fund for his treatment. Hospitals based in Chennai and Mumbai were keen to bear the expenses of Nakul's treatment.
Nakul was forced to leave school after he was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy. According to doctors, his heart's pumping efficiency had dropped from 60 per cent to 10-15 per cent, leading to swelling in several parts of his body. dna had reported about the family's struggle to find money for his treatment.
"After diagnosis at BJ Wadia Hospital, we were advised to go to Chennai as the city was more promising when it comes to getting a donor heart. We even registered in one of the hospitals there. But when we came to know about the three heart transplants in Fortis hospital, Mulund we got Nakul admitted there on August 18. But after spending 23 days in the hospital, nothing happened we came home home empty handed," said Dilip Chavan, Nakul's father, who works in the administrative department of a Nashik nursing home.
"We are trying all the options. Some days ago there was flood in Chennai so we are not able to communicate with the doctors there. But the need of the hour is to develop cadaver programme in the state," he added.
Vijay Agarwal, head of the paediatric cardiac surgery at Fortis Hospital in Mulund, said, "There are two more children in the our waiting list where we need a donor heart in specific weight. It's an unfortunate incident that a patient died because of not availability of donor heart. "We tried to get the message across through the social media. In paediatric cases, we require a donor heart that matches the size of the recipient's heart. We did what was supposed to from our side, and as per the stipulated guidelines in such cases. But we can't predict when we can get the organ."
A heart transplant is considered only when neither medication nor other surgeries can ensure the patient's survival. Patient's heart is either replaced (orthotopic procedure) or, less commonly, left in place to support the donor heart (heterotopic). The heart is donated by family of those declared brain dead.
"All the states in the country should come together and create a progarame, because sometime some state has a heart but they don't have a patient. In such cases donor hearts get wasted. Government should take an intitiative to solve this problem," said, Dr K R Balakrishnan, director of Cardiac Sciences at Fortis Malar Hospital, Chennai, who has done 54 heart transplants.
According to experts, compared to Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra lags behind in cadaver donation programme. Hence there is smaller chance to get the heart in Maharshtra than Chennai. Recently, five children underwent heart transplant procedure in Chennai. In Mumbai so far, 12 people are waiting for the donor hearts, so far five heart transplants procedures were performed this year and all were conducted at Fortis Hospital.
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