A 29-year-old school bus driver from Gundrampally in Choutuppal mandal of Nalgonda district got a new lease of life after he successfully underwent heart transplant at Century Hospital here.
A team of doctors observed Linga Swamy’s health condition for more than six months before replacing his diseased heart with one from a brain-dead donor, thanks to State-run organ donation programme Jeevandan.
On November 17, the hospital surgeons took up the transplant in a marathon surgery that lasted more than six hours.
He was suffering from Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCMP), a condition in which the heart becomes weak for unknown reasons, for the past five years. Mr. Swamy had a grossly dilated and poor functioning heart, said doctors, who performed the surgery. Since his family could not afford prolonged expensive treatment, the surgery was performed under Arogyasri scheme.
“His heart’s ability to pump blood to all the organs was reduced drastically. As a result, Swamy started experiencing shortness of breath, and the situation could have led to multi-organ failure and affected kidneys, liver and intestines subsequently,” said Dr. Hemanth Kaukuntla, chief cardiothoracic surgeon.
Mr Swamy was evaluated in February, and kept in the organ donor waiting list and was prepared for the surgery by giving proper nutrition, physical training, psychological and social adaptation, Dr. Praveen Nandagiri, director, Heart Transplant programme, told mediapersons here on Sunday.
He was shifted to a transplant isolation room in the ICU and put on immuno suppressive drugs to prevent rejection of the donor’s heart, a challenge in the immediate postoperative period, Dr Nandagiri said.