Chennai banker gets advanced heart pump
Special Correspondent
Special Correspondent
A 42-year-old city-based banker, who had been suffering from heart
problems for the past two years, has had a pump, worth at least US
$100,000, installed.
But, doctors cannot feel his pulse while he is on the heartware
ventricular assist device (HVAD) though it has the capacity to pump 10
litres of blood per minute.
C. Sathish Kumar received the implant a month ago after he
collapsed at the wheel of his car one Sunday evening while driving home
after a dinner outing with his family. A lab technician from Fortis
Malar Hospital who passed by heard the family’s cry for help and revived
him with on-the-spot cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Mr. Kumar was
immediately shifted to a hospital, where he was continually given
electric shocks to revive his heart. Suffering from arrhythmia, he
received 150 shocks to stabilise his heart.
Mr. Kumar was diagnosed with end-stage heart failure, medically
referred to as dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition due to which the
heart’s main chambers fail to pump blood. Doctors knew he needed a heart
transplant immediately but even in Chennai, where transplants have
become more common, he would have had to wait for at least three months.
Doctors offered him a solution — a golf-ball sized pump that would
take over the heart’s function. Mr. Kumar was informed he could continue
on the implant for at least 10 years just as others with the implant
had, elsewhere in the world.
Post-surgery, the recovery was quick. Within 16 hours he was off the ventilator and within a week he was out of the ICU.
Mr. Kumar’s wife, Suganthi, recalls her husband “looking energetic
within days of surgery.” He is now expected to get back to work in
October.
K.R. Balakrishnan, head of cardiac sciences, said, “We have sent
his heart tissues for biopsy and are awaiting the results. He is only 42
years old and we cannot guarantee the implant will last another 40
years as it has not been around that long. We think there is a 50 per
cent of his (biological) heart reviving its function. If that happens,
the implant can be removed.”
According to K.G. Suresh Rao, chief of cardiac anaesthesia and
critical care, the device is the smallest available in the world and
fits within the space around the heart. “Earlier, some patients have
received an LVAD – the left ventricular assist device. But HVAD is the
latest in the series,” Dr. Rao said.
Mr. Kumar will, however, be on life-long anti-coagulation drugs. He
will also be on medication to control his blood pressure. But he can
lead a normal life and continue doing rigorous exercises if he wishes,
doctors said.
With Love & Regards,
GKR
GKR
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