Hyderabad:The New Year brings great hopes into the lives of people, and this new year eve is going to be extremely special for a 51-year-old lady from Andhra Pradesh and a 59-year-old man from Delhi, both of whom received a new lease of life at the Institute of Heart and Lung transplant, KIMS Hospitals – Hyderabad after having successfully transplanted heart and double lungs respectively into them simultaneously, and will live on to lead a happy life ahead.
Racing against the time, doctors at the Institute of Heart and Lung transplant, KIMS Hospitals – Hyderabad have successfully transplanted a heart and double lungs in two different patients at the same time. Dr. Sandeep Attawar, Director and Chair Thoracic Organ Transplant program and his team made this extraordinary feat possible on December 24th 2020, when they transplanted a heart in a fifty one year old female patient from Andhra Pradesh and lungs in a 59 year old male patient from Delhi. The Donor was a brain dead patient from Hyderabad.
“Biggest challenge presented to us was to transplant harvested organs in two different recipients within 6-8 hours. The good thing was that the donor and recipients were in same hospital. It helped us cut down travel time to zero. It needed seamless coordination between surgical teams to make both transplants successful.” Dr. Sandeep Attawar, Program Director and Chair, Institute of Heart & Lung Transplantation said.
This lung transplant recipient from Delhi was a post COVID fibrosis patient who was on ECMO. He is a 59 year old gentleman who developed severe lung fibrosis due to covid infection and was on ECMO support for the last 2 weeks. The heart transplant recipient is a 51 year old female patient from Andhra Pradesh who had developed severe heart dysfunction post Myocardial infarction.
Dr Sandeep Attawar said “Both the surgeries were successful. Both the recipients are stable and recovering in the ICU. This is another milestone in the history of KIMS and Heart Lung Transplant team”
Both of the recipients have expressed their gratitude to the KIMS Institute of Heart and Lung transplant for making the transplants successful. They thanked Telangana Jeevandan for their support to get organs. They also thanked the donor family for coming forward in a hard time and giving consent to donate the organs.
“My mother was diagnosed with heart failure and we were completely hopeless. At that time, we came to the Heart and Lung Transplant Institute at KIMS, Hyderabad. We are very thankful from the bottom of our heart to the doctors here. They have suggested us to go for the heart transplant. Transplant surgeon Dr Sandeep Attawar and his team did fabulous work in making this surgery successful. Physician Dr Sonali Arora gave us day to day counselling about my mother’s condition. We are also thankful to the organ donation organisation Telangana Jeevan daan, which found the suitable organ on time. Me and my family would like to thank them” Said Mr Mani Vaibhav, son of heart recipient.
“My father suffered from post covid fibrosis. We had no hope at all. But when we came to the KIMS hospital, the situation was different. The godly hands of Dr Sandeep Attawar have healed miraculously. This is a multi-speciality hospital where they have the latest equipment and are very regular in giving daily updates to the family about the health of the patients. Dr Sandeep Attawar gave us hope when there was no hope when we started from our home city. He has the miraculous power of healing as well as a saint-like demeanor who inculcate confidence in the families of the patients. I would like to recommend Dr. Sandeep Attawar and his team at KIMS hospital if anybody finds a terrible situation of a transplant. Said Mr. Prashanth Mukim, Son of Lungs recipient.
Dr. Sandeep Attawar is one of the most experienced heart and lung transplant surgeons in the country. A veteran in the field of transplant surgeries with over 24-years’ experience, Dr. Attawar has to date performed over 12,000 heart surgeries and has over 250 transplant surgeries for lungs, heart, and artificial heart implants (LVAD) to his credit.