Mumbai: After 56 years, KEM hospital performs successful heart op

Team at KEM Hospital with Additional Municipal Commissioner (Health) Dr Sudhakar Shinde

After a gap of 56 years, the BMC-run King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital successfully performed its first heart transplant on Thursday.

The donor is Sai Parab, 34, who passed away because of severe complications during pregnancy that led to bleeding inside the brain. Her husband, Deepak Parab, said, "We rushed her from Kalyan to KEM hospital and she remained in the hospital for four days. We were then told she would have to be either on the ventilator or we can choose to donate her organs while there is still time. It was a difficult and emotional decision but both of our families were on board. We found satisfaction in the idea that she would live on in some way."

Sai Parab, the deceased donor (left) with her husband Deepak

The transplant procedure saved the life of a 38-year-old man suffering from ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart is weakened due to reduced blood flow. KEM Hospital continues to be the only civic hospital in the country to have successfully performed a heart transplant. The equipment for the recent procedure worth R2 crore was funded by former Congress MP Kumar Ketkar.

"The planning for the transplant was being made for the past few months. The successful transplant was the outcome of a team effort," said Dr Sangeeta Ravat, dean of the KEM hospital. Dr Uday Jadhav, head of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at KEM Hospital, said the transplant procedure went on for about seven hours. "We had trained ourselves in the 3-day Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC) programme conducted at KEM hospital two months ago," he said.

Private doctors roped in

Due to a lack of expertise in transplants, the hospital had to rope in some of the private doctors to be part of the historic moment. The surgery was headed by Dr Pravin Kulkarni, who is a consultant at Thane's Jupiter Hospital, he said, "Things are always possible if there is enough support from government and bureaucracy. KEM hospital has asked me to assist the heart transplant team for the first year till they are independent."

While the transplant laws in India are the same for both, public and private set-ups, it is seldom the case that the procedure is conducted at government or civic hospitals.

A heart transplant was last performed at the KEM hospital on February 17, 1968, by Dr P K Sen and while it was successful the patient had passed away three hours after the procedure. After 1968, the second heart transplant in Mumbai was performed in 2015 in a private hospital.

Lack of training in public hospitals

Dr Hemant Pathare, a heart and lung transplant surgeon at Jaslok Hospital and part of ZTCC, said, "It is very rare that organ donation takes place in a public hospital. Even from the hospital side there is no dedicated effort to convince the relatives of the brain dead patients. On the contrary, in private set ups there is an entire team who counsel families and make them realise that in a way part of their kin will stay alive in this world."

The data until 2020 shows the highest number of organ donors to be in 2019, all 79 were from private hospitals.

"Another reason why transplants occur in private hospitals frequently is training. Hospitals as well as government administration need to prioritise training doctors in transplant procedures. KEM's achievement will perhaps pave the way for it now," Dr Pathare said.

Meanwhile, the recipient of the heart transplant is being kept under observation for 15 days.

Seven
Duration of surgery in hours