For 48-year-old Naresh Bala, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) — a life-threatening disorder — six years ago, getting cured of cancer through a bone marrow transplant (BMT) was a great blessing.
AML is a type of blood cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow of the individual. However, unlike other patients, Mr. Bala was suffering from a heart ailment, making the case a high-risk procedure. BMT was the only option for the patient to be cured of cancer, and fortunately for him, his brother became a matching donor.
Although he recovered from AML, over the next two to three years, he began developing symptoms of heart failure and was diagnosed with triple vessel coronary artery disease (TVCAD).
As he was on immunosuppressive medications, his surgery was deferred by doctors at Narayana Health City, where he underwent BMT. His condition, however, continued to deteriorate over a period, making it imperative for the doctors to perform a bypass surgery, a life-saving procedure for his heart.
A team of doctors, led by Sharat Damodar, clinical director who also heads the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit in Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre, Narayana Health City, performed the surgery, and the patient was treated successfully.
Speaking on the complexity of the case, the doctor told presspersons here on Friday that a person suffering from blood cancer and TVCAD at the same time was an extremely rare condition. “While the BMT required taking utmost care and ensuring that the functioning of the heart was not adversely affected, the coronary artery bypass surgery presented high risk of infections as the patient was on immunosuppressant medicines. The numerous risks that both the conditions presented, required extraordinary efforts, the slightest deviation could have led to irreversible conditions, even death,” he explained.
“With this case, we become the first hospital in India to have successfully treated a patient with two such critical life-threatening diseases,” the doctor claimed.
“The patient is not only cured of cancer and heart disease, but is also leading a near normal life after two major surgeries without any complications,” the doctor added.
