A 24-year-old received a new lease of life after doctors in the city operated up on him by lowering his body’s temperature and suspending its function.
Around six weeks ago, the patient suffered from aortic dissection, a tear in the major artery connected to the heart and supplies blood to the body, and rushed to city-based KIMS Hospital. Doctors undertook the 10-hour life-saving procedure to save the patient and decided to suspend the body’s function by stopping circulation.
“At normal temperature, stopping circulation would result in organ damage. However, by cooling the body there is a window of 30 to 40 minutes when circulation can be stopped in the body,” said Dr. Sreedhar Reddy, consultant heart surgeon, who performed the surgery. “In this case, we drew all the blood out of the body, cooled it to 15 degree Celsius and pumped it back into the body before stopping the blood circulation within.”
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It was during the window that doctors performed the critical portion of the surgery of fixing the tear. Dr. Reddy said the patient has recovered from the ordeal and has resumed normal life.
-EOM