Woman, 66, gets new lease of life with youth's heart

A 66-year-old Odissi dancer suffering from heart failure received a new lease of life when she underwent a successful heart transplant in the city on Sunday.  

Alok Nandini Mishra, a retired teacher from  Bhubaneswar, Odisha, suffered a heart attack last February, following which her heart failed as there was a delay in getting medical help.  She was admitted to a  hospital in Bhubaneswar for a month and suffered recurrent heart failures.

Her son Adhyoksaja Barun Ashirbada got her airlifted to Bengaluru and admitted her to the M S Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre. At the hospital, she underwent Intravenous Milrinone Infusion, whereby blood was pumped through an artificial heart.

After waiting for nearly a month, Alok received a donor heart on Sunday where a team of doctors successfully performed the transplant.

"There is a notion that the patient will not be able to sustain transplants after the age of 60 or 70. People normally go for transplant surgeries if the patient is young. But irrespective of the age,  if the patient is stabilised and has maintained good health, transplant is possible at any age," said Dr Nagamallesh U M, senior consultant, heart failure  and transplant cardiologist. Alok is doing well after the transplant, the doctor added.  

Ashirbada said his family and relatives had discouraged him from pursuing further treatment for his mother. But he is happy that he brought her to the city and that she underwent a successful heart transplant.

The heart donor was a 20-year-old man from Hirisave, Hassan district,  who had suffered a grievous head injury after falling off a motorbike. He was shifted to Sparsh Hospital in Bengaluru, where doctors declared him brain-dead. While his heart was transplanted to Alok, his kidneys, liver and eyes were retrieved   and transplanted, too.  

NIMHANS, an organ
retrieval centre

Dr Kishore Phadke, convener of Jeevasarthakathe - the transplant authority set up by the state government - said the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences has already been identified as the non-transplant organ retrieval centre.

Since it receives the maximum number of head-injury cases, he said NIMHANS can retrieve the organs, but cannot transplant them. He said organs are retrieved in 43 centres in the state. Each of the centres has the capability to harvest a specific organ and not all of them could be taken in one centre.

Dr Phadke has 3,000 registered patients waiting for organs. Once a patient is declared brain-dead, the family is counseled regarding organ donation. After securing the family's consent, the organs of the brain-dead person are harvested and donated to a recipient who has been waiting for a longer time.

Jeevasarthakathe has coordinated 23 organ donations in the first three months of this year.

DH News Service