A heart transplant against all odds

It was completely different experience for us. Within 8 minutes we reached the Apollo Jubilee Hills from Secunderabad with the donor’s heart. Doctors immediately conducted transplantation and saved Veeranjaneyulu

A heart transplant was successfully performed on 19-year-old Veeranjaneyulu by a team of doctors of Apollo Heart Institute, led by Dr Vijay Dikshit, chief of cardiothoracic surgeon.

Dr Dikshit said that it was the first heart transplant surgery at Apollo Hospital conducted on Nov 11. The patient Anjaneyulu is also hale and healthy now.

“The success of the heart transplant is a big encouragement to all of us,” he added.

The important aspect in this transplantation was how the traffic police brought the donor’s heart within 8 minutes from Secunderabad to Jubilee Hills Apollo hospitals.

Veeranjaneyulu is a pharmacy student. His native place is Karampuri, Guntur district. For the last six months, he was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy where the function of heart muscle was severely depleted.
“When he approached us, his condition was critical. We started giving all kinds of treatments but nothing could give him relief. He suffered from breathing problems and severe swelling of the body. He was not able to walk, sit or talk. Even the condition of liver and kidney also started deteriorating. Heart transplant was the only choice left for him. Luckily he got the heart from a brain-dead patient. Everything worked out according to our plan and the patient Veeranjaneyulu successfully underwent the transplantation. The reasons for the success of this transplantation were the donor’s age and size of the heart which matched the patient perfectly. Age and size of the heart play a key role in the heart transplantation,” said Dr Dikshit.

“It was a team effort. In 1 hour and 59 minutes, we completed the whole procedure of heart transplantation successfully for the patient. In fact it’s a record. Generally the procedure takes more than 10 hours. Time is a crucial factor especially in heart transplantation. After taking out the heart from the donor’s body, with all the medical care, the heart should be transplanted in the patient’s body within four hours duration. Transport of the organ is really a challenging task. In this task, the role of West Zone Traffic Police, Hyderabad, was really laudable. And success of any transplantation depends upon post operative management. The patient Veeranjaneyulu should take medication lifelong for his healthy living. The cost of medication per month might be Rs 10,000 to 12,000,” added Dr Dikshit.

Speaking on this occasion, Sangitha Reddy said, “The role of Jeevandan project officials was tremendous, who informed us about the donor. I congratulate our doctors’ team for giving a new lease of life to the patient. The patient had a strong will to live. He cooperated with the doctors a lot. His liver and kidney are also functioning well now and has recovered completely. What I stress more is the need to bringing awareness on organ donation among the public. There is a wide gap in the donors to recipient ratio in heart transplantation in the country. Another problem is that, we don’t have any national registry with regard to requirement for heart transplantations. In our state, there are very less organ transplantations. This is a matter of concern.”
Now I am happy guy:

“Doctors gave a second life to me. Now I am a happy man. Walking, eating, and speaking like everybody without any problem. My kidney and liver are also perfectly normal. I am very much grateful to them,” said Veeranjaneyulu, patient.

It was a unique experience:
Speaking on this occasion, Padmanabha Reddy, ACP Traffic, West Zone, Hyderabad, said, “It was completely different experience for us. Within 8 minutes we reached the Apollo Jubilee Hills from Secunderabad with the donor’s heart. Doctors also did not expect that in such a short time, we would bring it. They immediately conducted transplantation and saved Veeranjaneyulu. We all felt very happy for participating in this thing. We got great satisfaction for what we have done that day. It is inexplicable.”