Bhavani Shankar’s heart is brimming with joy as it beats steadily on in its dark cavity. On Wednesday morning, his wife delivered their first baby, a girl. The baby weighed 3.66 kg and when the tests were all completed and the doctors told them that the baby had no congenital problems, they were thrilled. Soon, the wishes started pouring in, thick and fast. Among the many wishes he received from family and friends, a really precious message came from people he’s known pretty closely for the last six years.
For them, his transplant team, the occasion was as momentous as it was for Bhavani Shankar and his family. In 2010, matters came to a head for them, when Bhavani Shankar was diagnosed with dilated cardio myopathy, and a heart transplant, they said, was his only hope to survive. At a time when cadaver transplant was just picking up in the State, a donor heart became available in March that year and Bhavani Shankar was the fortunate recipient.
After spending a careful, sterile nine months at home, following the transplant at Dr. Cherian's Frontier Lifeline hospital, he was energised enough to go back to work. He took up a job in a rice processing unit and picked up from where he had left off.
His sweetheart stuck by him too, and they decided to get married last year. “She was okay with it, but several members of the family had doubts, and apprehensions. I took them to my doctor, K.M. Cherian, who patiently explained that I was fit enough to enter matrimony,” he says.
“It's just this incredible story of hope for transplantees. It’s a story of normalcy, that everyone aspires for. Bhavani Shankar is an example of the possibility of this normalcy,” Dr. K. M. Cherian says.
As for the new father, he’s all the more determined to keep to his drug regimen, and stick to what the doctor has laid out for him. For him, it’s yet another fresh lease of life. Here’s wishing him well on this one too.
Five years after a heart transplant, Bhavani Shankar is in seventh heaven after the birth of his first child
