Doctors triumph in heart surgery on rare 'Bombay blood group' man

A city-based Cauvery Heart and Multi-Speciality Hospital has performed a double valve replacement surgery on a 45-year-old man, Shivanna, who has a rare blood group type – Bombay Blood Group — recently.

The surgery was performed without using a single unit of blood, claimed hospital authorities.

Shivanna, a daily wage labourer from Ura Hulahalli in H D Kote taluk, was suffering from rheumatic heart ailment and was treated three years ago in a Bengaluru-based hospital. But, the problem was not solved and needed immediate attention, as both the valves in his heart had narrowed, leading to tiredness, said doctors.

When he approached Cauvery Heart and Multi-Speciality Hospital, the doctors, lead
by Dr S C Madhuprakash, learnt that he had a rare blood group. According to the doctors, one person in a million people will have this blood group.

The hospital approached most of the blood banks across the State, but in vain. Even Shivanna’s relatives were screened but none of their blood groups were matching, said the doctors.

“Delay in the surgery would further damage Shivanna’s health, thus, we decided to use the patient’s own blood through ‘Pre-Operative Autologous Blood Donation’ process.

Shivanna’s own blood was collected two weeks prior to the operation and stored to be used during the surgery. Usually, valve replacement surgery requires large units of blood, but in Shivanna’s case, the surgery was performed without using a single unit of blood,” said Dr Madhuprakash.

“He was discharged with good health on the fifth day of the surgery. Such surgeries on rare blood group patients pose extra stress on the team,” he added.

Roopa Shivanna, wife of Shivanna, said, “My husband could not pursue even simple works because of his heart problem. He used to get, tired but now he is doing well. The surgery was performed under the Yashaswini scheme of the State government.”

The three units of blood, which was drawn from Shivanna, was used for another patient from Chikkaballapur, to perform a heart surgery.

A Bengaluru-based blood bank had contacted the hospital for the blood and thus, the preserved blood was given to them after Shivanna’s surgery, claimed a doctor.