The young boy’s father is a businessman, while his mother is an engineer
Chennai:
In what is believed to be a medical first in Southeast Asia, doctors at a private hospital in Chennai claim to have successfully performed a complex artificial heart implantation procedure, involving two artificial heart pumps known as from “Berlin Heart”, about three-year-old Russian boy.
The procedure – a surgical biventricular heart implant – was performed with full virtual support.
The boy, the hospital said, suffered “from a heart condition called restrictive cardiomyopathy, in which the walls of the heart’s lower chambers (called ventricles) are too stiff to dilate and receive blood.”
Surgery became inevitable as her condition worsened despite two months of treatment.
He had already suffered two episodes of cardiac arrest and had been resuscitated with manual compressions for several minutes, hence the need for two heart pumps until a transplant or recovery of his heart.
The “Berlin Heart” is found outside the body and is directly connected to the biological heart.
Amid the restrictions in place during the COVID-19 crisis, including on travel and the PPE (personal protective equipment) worn by the little patient, the operation was a huge challenge.
The company that makes the “Berlin Heart” normally sends its doctors for the procedure, but with the pandemic ruling it out, experts in Germany and the UK have held virtual support sessions for their counterparts in Chennai to prepare them.
Doctors took seven hours to complete complex heart transplant
Doctors said the seven-hour surgery, performed on May 25, also had real-time virtual support from foreign experts.
“The Berlin Heart will support circulation until the heart recovers or has a transplant. The child made a remarkable recovery and gained weight in a very short time. He left the ICU. He is doing perfectly fine now, ”Dr KR Balakrishnan, President and Director of Cardiac Sciences, MGM Healthcare, where the surgery was performed, said.
In fact, the boy, whose father is a businessman and mother an engineer, is now learning Tamil from nurses at the hospital.
“With that kind of support, people have been successful for up to five years. In the case of children, there is a chance that the heart will recover or that they will get a transplant with which they have a long life; people lived to be 25 years old, “Dr Balakrishnan told GalacticGaming.
The “Berlin Heart” costs around Rs 60 lakh and was paid for by the Russian government, according to the hospital.
The cost of the surgery itself was around Rs 30 lakh. It could go downhill, medical experts believe, as more surgeries of this type are performed in the country and more doctors learn about the technology.
“Newborns with heart failure or children with severe heart failure have little choice. The wait times for donor hearts are far too long. Cardiac assist devices that save lives bridge time by mechanically supporting heart function, ”said Dr. Suresh Rao, hospital co-director.
