Mumbai will have to wait for first heart transplant

Mumbai's tryst with the first heart transplant got delayed as Fortis Hospital failed to carry it out due to the quality of the organ donated on April 20. It has been 10 years since the state health ministry licensed six hospitals in the city to conduct heart transplant, but none of them has managed to do it till date.

After a 66-year-old woman was declared brain dead in Jupiter Hospital in Thane, her family agreed to donate her heart along with liver and kidneys. Hearing the news, a team of doctors from Mulund's Fortis Hospital reached Jupiter Hospital to harvest the organ but returned disappointed as the heart was not compatible for a transplant.

Incidentally, the woman was the 18th cadaver donor in the city this year.

Dr Anvay Mulay, cardiacthoracic surgeon, said, "During assessment of the organ, we didn't find it suitable for transplant. The ECG showed unfavourable changes, and therefore, couldn't use the heart for transplant."

The state government has sent notices to these hospitals asking them the reasons behind failing to conduct the transplant.

Heart transplant experts and cardiologists believe it is the unavailability of donors that is leading to the delay in conducting a heart transplant.

Normally, patients who are advised to go for heart transplant, are referred to hospitals in the south. Recently, 21-year-old Rahul Thakur from Jalgaon district got operated for a heart transplant at Fortis Malar Hospital in Chennai. There are now five patients from Maharashtra who are registered with the hospital in Chennai for heart transplants.

Dr Ajay Chaurasia, head of cardiology department at BYL Nair hospital, said, "There is an urgent need to push for a heart transplant programme. Every year, we come across nearly 50 patients who require a heart transplant. Many continue to live on medication and succumb to the disease eventually, others travel to south for the surgery."

What's it about?
Heart transplant or cardiac transplantation is a surgical procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery diseases. It is considered only when medication or other surgeries cannot ensure the survival of a patient. A patient's own heart is either removed (orthotopic procedure), or, less commonly, left in place to support the donor heart (heterotopic procedure).
The heart is donated by the family of those who has been declared brain dead.