First Ever Successful Paediatric Heart Transplantation In The Telugu States

An expert team of Paediatric Cardiothoracic Surgeons at STAR Hospitals created history by successfully conducting a Paediatric Heart Transplantation on 8-year-old Yashwant. The Team performs 500 plus Paediatric heart surgeries every year.

Hyderabad, April 22^nd, 2017: Eight-year-old Yashwant got a new lease of life with a new heart, during a successfully conducted surgery by an expert team of Paediatric Heart Surgeons at Star Hospitals.

Yashwant was at the ‘end stage’ of heart disease—his young body was swollen and his heart was functioning at only 8%, rather than the normal rate of 60%. He had been suffering from symptoms for over two years and not responding to any medication. Everything about his situation was desperate. His father had died three years before and his mother, a domestic cook by profession, struggled to make ends meet. Still, in an effort to get her child treated, Yashwant’s mother took him to the best doctors.

When Yashwant was checked by the specialists, he was diagnosed with severe biventricular dysfunction. His mother was told that her son would be able to survive only if he underwent a heart transplant. Being a single parent with a low-paying job and no access to financial help from family members, she faced her son’s future with growing consternation.

Yashwant’s mother was told that the procedure presented many challenges. 

Yashwant was only eight years old and he would, therefore, require an appropriately sized heart to replace his malfunctioning one. The fact that he was a mere child also presented various surgical challenges that the doctors would have to face. Both Yashwant’s mother and the medical experts were aware that they were dealing with a situation that could have potentially negative consequences.

Yashwant’s mother could only think of one thing. She had to save her son. She approached STAR Hospitals and Hrudaya Foundation and appealed for their help. Being a widow, she had severe financial problems. Her job as a domestic cook earned her just about enough to put food on the table, pay house rent and give her child a basic education. She was being informed of a surgical procedure that would cost a sum of  Rs 15 to 20 lacs for surgical expenses—a figure that was beyond her imagination.

Hope lit up the horizon when Rs 7 lacs was sanctioned by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's Relief Fund to meet heart transplant expenses. The balance was then provided by Karvy Computershare Ltd. through Hrudaya Foundation. But then arose the question of a compatible heart. It was almost impossible to find a properly functioning heart in such a case where the patient was a mere child of eight years.

After a tense wait, during which Yashwant’s mother and the Star team never gave up hope of finding a perfect match, a donor was identified in Telangana with the support of Jeevandhan Organisation.

The donor was an 18-year-old young adult who met with an accident at Chityala, Nalgonda Dist. He had been admitted in Kamineni Hospitals and was declared brain dead. It is the greatness of his family to have taken a decision to donate the young boy’s heart to Yashwant, a resident of East Godavari District, who subsequently underwent his life-saving heart transplant surgery.  

Mr M.K.K. Mohan, Admin Head and Liason Officer of  STAR Hospitals, took great care to ensure the green corridor for a smooth transition of the donor team and harvested organ from Kamineni hospitals to STAR Hospitals. This in itself was a wondrous event when all social and geographical boundaries were surmounted—a Telangana boy’s heart found a new home in a boy from East Godavari District.

What a day of rejoicing it was when Yashwant’s surgery was successfully conducted on April 4^th, 2017 by STAR Hospitals expert Transplant team consisting of following Doctors headed  by Dr Gopichand Mannam:

Dr Y Suman Vyas - Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist

Dr Nitin Rao - Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist

Dr PV Ramachandra Raju - Transplant Cardiologist

Dr BR  Jagannath - Chief Paediatric Cardiothoracic Surgeon

Dr Lokeswara Rao Sajja - Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon  

Dr KVSS Sai Kiran - Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon

Dr Ramkinkar Shastri - Anesthesiologist

Dr Sriramulu Sompalli - Anesthesiologist

Dr JVK Kishore - Critical Care

Dr Ramesh Babu Dasari - Consultant Paediatrician & Intensivist

Dr Ravi Babu Komalla - Consultant Pediatrician

Dr Jyothsna Guttikonda - Consultant Nephrologist

STAR Hospitals, with its state-of-the-art Paediatric Cardiology Wing, was the ideal place for a procedure of such proportions. But even with the finest team of specialist surgeons, it was a tense situation till the very end. Would the donor’s heart be at home in the body of the recipient? Would Yashwant’s body respond well? Would his heart problems be completely reversed by this procedure? This and many more questions beset both Yashwant’s mother and the Star team.

Never doubting their own expertise and leaving no room for error, Dr. Gopichand Mannam and his team went into surgery with resolve, and their skills and dedication were rewarded when Yashwant’s body accepted the donor's heart, and when the eight-year-old boy, whose life had hung in the balance, was declared out of danger and on the road to recovery.

Today, Yashwant’s mother is ecstatic and grateful to the Star Hospitals team for never giving up on her son—their ability gave her son a new lease of life. 

As the Cardiac specialists at Star Hospitals say, there is so much at stake in such situations, but every heart transplant is a gift of life, and at the end of the day the incredible, life-saving results are worth all the anxiety and toil that they gladly endure as they go about their role in fighting heart disease with the best possible solutions.

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