Eight years ago, Reena Raju suffered a viral infection that affected her heart, leading to severe heart muscle dysfunction. The Bangalore resident underwent a heart transplant at Frontier Lifeline Hospital. Since then, she motivated other heart transplant recipients, founded a charitable trust for organ transplantation, and this June participated in the World Transplant Games in Spain.
Eight days ago, however, her condition deteriorated — she had cardiac allograft vasculopathy — the blood vessels of her transplanted heart had narrowed. She was brought to Frontier Lifeline in an unstable condition. Her only option was another heart transplant and she was registered as an ‘urgent candidate.’ Five days ago, she underwent a repeat heart transplant. On Thursday, speaking on the eve of the World Heart Day at Frontier Lifeline Hospital, she said, “Never give up. If you can breathe, you can do anything.”
Chairman and CEO of the hospital K.M. Cherian said that allograft vasculopathy could happen to any transplant recipient. “In Reena’s case, all three of her vessels were cut off and so there was no chance of any other procedure. Her ejection fraction had come down to 10%,” he said and added that immunosuppressant drugs were one of the causes.
The hospital had another heart transplant patient on the occasion — Archana, 13, from Kancheepuram and daughter of daily wage workers. She too had a viral infection — in May this year — but despite treatment with immunoglobulin injections, her heart function did not improve. She was brought to the hospital in cardiac arrest, but was resuscitated. She underwent a transplant 10 days ago. It was funded by the hospitals doctors and staff. She wants to become a teacher.
