As part of its efforts to meet the surging demand for heart transplant procedures and to promote cadaver organ harvesting, Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) here is currently preparing a proposal to set up a facility to harvest cadaver hearts and transplant them.
The proposal will soon be forwarded to the State government seeking its permission to perform heart transplant surgeries on heart patients from southern districts, said S. Vadivel Murugan, Medical Superintendent.
“The GRH already performs kidney and eye transplants, and soon it will be able to carry out heart transplants once the permission is granted,” said N. Balanayagam, Head, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. “We already have an expert team of two professors and four assistant professors who can efficiently perform the surgery,” he added.
The heart transplant procedure, which costs around Rs.4.5 lakh in private hospitals, is likely to benefit many as the GRH would perform surgeries free of cost. Under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme, Rs.1.5 lakh is allotted to perform such surgeries.
According to sources, the hospital receives seven cases of end heart failure every month.
Mostly, patients aged between 40 and 50 years came with ischemic heart disorder and cardiomyopathy that led to heart failure, said a senior doctor at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery.
