Heart transplant surgery successfully conducted at NIMS Hyderabad

Hyderabad: 

The surgeons at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) have successfully conducted a heart transplant surgery on a 30-year-old painter on Wednesday.The donor heart, which was retrieved from a 34-year-old constable M Veerababu, who was declared as brain dead at Yashoda Hospitals, Malakpet, was transported in 12 minutes after traffic authorities created a green channel and cleared traffic between Malakpet and NIMS Punjagutta. The donor heart was transported in an ambulance, which started at around 1.44 pm from Yashoda Hospitals and reached NIMS by 1.56 pm on Wednesday.Veerababu, who was working at Kondapur, was on leave and went to his native Khammam on personal work. While returning, his two-wheeler was hit by a bus at Gollagudem, Khammam. The constable was immediately rushed to a local hospital and later shifted to Yashoda Hospitals, Malakpet.According to the attending neuro-physicians, despite providing intensive treatment to revive the constable, the prognosis continued to remain poor. With no improvement in sight, the neuro-physicians had to declare Veerababu as brain dead due to severe head injuries. A series of grief counselling sessions later, the family members including his wife, decided to donate the organs of Veerababu to needy patients under Jeevandan organ donation initiative.This is for the first time that a donor heart has been allotted to a patient at NIMS from a private hospital. Due to the chronic heart condition of the painter, the transplant surgeons at NIMS had registered his name in Jeevandan on Tuesday and within a day, the hospital was allocated with a matching donor heart under Jeevandan.In the last few years, the surgeons at NIMS have successfully conducted five heart transplants. However, all the five heart transplants were from the donor hearts retrieved from patients who were declared as brain dead at NIMS.“We thank the traffic authorities for creating the green channel, which ensured the donor heart was transported to NIMS quickly. Despite the Covid pandemic, organ transplant surgeries have continued to be taken up in Hyderabad. We urge people to pledge organs for the novel cause,” in-charge, Jeevandan, Dr G Swarnalatha said.