Kochi | A 21-year-old woman from Nepal was given a new lease of life on Monday as Ernakulam General Hospital performed its maiden heart transplant, the first such procedure at a district-level government medical facility in Kerala.
The recipient, Durga Kaami, has been suffering from a rare genetic heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Hailing from Nepalgunj in Nepal, she lost her parents and had been living in an orphanage.
She received the heart of Shibu, a native of Kollam, who was declared brain dead following a road accident.
Shibu’s organs were harvested at Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College and airlifted to Kochi in a helicopter.
The helicopter landed in Kochi around 2.30 pm, from where the heart was taken to Ernakulam General Hospital in an ambulance.
Hospital authorities said the transplant surgery, which was completed around 6 pm, was successful.
“Kaami has been shifted to the ICU and will remain under close observation,” a doctor at the hospital said.
Kaami was diagnosed with the disease at the age of 19, the same condition that claimed the lives of her mother and sister.
Due to the high cost of treatment, she and her younger brother were brought to Kerala by a Malayali who runs the orphanage where they lived.
Though Kaami had registered with the Kerala State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (K-SOTTO) eight months ago and was awaiting a matching donor, she was initially not included in the priority list as she is not an Indian national.
She later approached the Kerala High Court, which directed that she be included in the priority list.
Dr Shahirshah, Superintendent of Ernakulam General Hospital, said that once a matching donor became available, the decision was taken to conduct the transplant at the hospital’s cardiac centre.
“We have a very talented and skilled team of doctors at this government hospital. After the High Court directive, all procedures were completed without delay,” he said.
Dr Shahirshah said Kaami had believed she would not live beyond the age of 24, as her mother and sister had died young due to the same illness.
“She was deeply anxious about her condition and believed she would live only up to that age. We are helping her overcome those fears and giving her a new lease of life,” he said.
The transplant is being carried out by a medical team led by cardiothoracic surgeon Dr George Vallooran.
The office of Health Minister Veena George said seven organs of Shibu were donated.
One kidney was allocated to Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College and another to Travancore Medical College, Kollam.
His liver was transplanted at KIMS Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, while his corneas were donated to the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology.
His skin was also donated to the skin bank at Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College.
George thanked Shibu’s family for consenting to organ donation despite their grief and expressed condolences.
The minister said that extensive facilities were in place at Ernakulam General Hospital for heart transplant surgery.
“The hospital had earlier achieved national milestones by performing valve replacement without opening the heart and kidney transplants at the district hospital level, and the heart transplant marked the next major step,” she said.
