Air ambulance used for intra-city Live Heart transplant for first time

Heart of brain-dead donor air-lifted from Apollo Hospital, Bannerghatta Road to Narayana Heart Centre within M S Ramaiah Hospital campus in Mattikere

Avoiding all the traffic snarls and the green corridor, 45 year old female’s heart was flown from Apollo Hospital, Bannerghatta Road to M S Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre in Mattikere today. This is the first time that an Air Ambulance was used to transport a heart within the city covering the distance in just 11 minutes. The heart was transplanted to a 51 year old female patient hailing from Andhra Pradesh.

It is also rare that a female donor’s heart is transplanted to a female recipient as in this case.

The recipient was suffering from Dilated Cardiomyopathy with severe Left Ventricle dysfunction and was being treated by Dr. Nagamalesh U M, Sr. Consultant Transplant Cardiologist at M S Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre. After a thorough evaluation, she was advised heart transplant as a last resort and was registered with ZCCK.

The 45 year old donor from Ramanagar district was admitted to Apollo Hospital on 22^nd February after being on a ventilator in another private hospital since 19^th February. She had an intra-cranial bleed and was declared brain dead today. Her husband is an agriculturist and the couple has one son working for a private cab company.

Earlier this week, another heart of a 25 year old road accident victim was flown in from A J Hospital, Mangalore to M S Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre in Bangalore to be transplanted for the first time to a 20 year old boy who was suffering from Dilated Cardiomyopathy and was put on a biventricular assisted device (Bi-VAD).

The team of doctors from M S Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre who performed the heart transplant includes Dr. Julius Punnen, Sr. Consultant Heart Transplant & Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Dr. Ravi Shankar Shetty, Sr. Heart Transplant & Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Dr. Shilpa Rudradevaru, Associate Cardiac Surgeon, Dr. Nagamalesh U M, Sr. Consultant Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiologist and Dr. Ravi Naik, Consultant Cardiac Anesthetist.