KOCHI: The heart of 25-year-old college student, Navis Mathew, is now beating within Premchand K (59) from Kozhikode. The patient was taken off the ventilator within 36 hours of the heart transplant, is conscious and responding well.
The brain-dead student’s heart was harvested in Kochi and transplanted in the patient in Kozhikode on Saturday, with the health department and police creating a ‘green corridor’ to swiftly and safely transport the live organ within three hours. The heart transplant was carried out at Metromed International Cardiac Center (MICC)
“The patient is doing well and without any equipment support. His recovery is fast. He has now started taking a liquid diet too. We have overcome a major risk and now our concern is the risk of rejection,” said Dr P P Mohammed Musthafa, chief interventional cardiologist and managing director, MICC.
The recipient was suffering from cardiomyopathy, a condition that affected his heart muscle. Due to this, his heart couldn’t efficiently pump blood to the rest of the body. As a result, the patient experienced fatigue, shortness of breath or heart palpitations. Due to cardiomyopathy his condition worsened over time and he was unable to even move around in the hospital. To ensure medical treatment, the patient had moved to a rented house near the hospital and registered under the organ donation programme with Kerala Network of Organ Sharing (KNOS) six months ago and was awaiting a donor.
There are very few centres in Kerala doing heart transplants. So far, the state has seen 54 heart transplants under the Kerala Deceased Donor Transplant. The main concerns about heart transplant is the high cost and risk of rejection. Heart transplant costs anywhere between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 20 lakh.
