Fortis Hospital had registered its request for a heart two years ago.
A day after a green corridor was set up in Kolkata to aid a heart transplant, the 39-year-old recipient is no longer on ventilator support and has been responding well to treatment, said doctors of Fortis Hospital on Tuesday.
However, this is not the end of the doctors’ worries, as they believe that the next 72 hours will be extremely crucial for the recovery of the patient, Dilchand Singh.
“Our transplant recipient is stable and continues to progress well. He is alert and has been taken off assisted ventilation. All medical parameters are satisfactory. His relatives have visited him and have been updated,” said Dr Arafat Faisal, Medical Superintendent of Fortis Hospital.
The process to transport the heart began at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport at 11.09 am and ended at the hospital at 11.29 am after an 18.7-km journey through VIP Road and EM Bypass. Around 50 traffic officers from Kaikhali, Baguihati, Lake Town, Ultadanga and Beliaghat monitored frequencies to maintain co-ordination.
Dr Tapas Rai Choudhury, head of the medical team which performed the transplant, said, “This is the first time in India that a heart was brought from another city to be transplanted into a patient in Kolkata. So far, the operation is successful and it’s definitely a matter of pride. But it is also very unfortunate for Bengal that we are dependant on other cities for organs. This is the first heart transplant in the city. Our state needs awareness on organ donation. We have a huge number of patients who need organs. As per statistics available with us, in West Bengal alone, around 35,000 patients require heart transplant due to heart failure. We must talk about it and spread awareness among people to donate organs,” he said.
Fortis Hospital had registered its request for a heart two years ago. The request was granted on Sunday night after an accident victim was declared brain dead at a private hospital in Bengaluru. The patient’s heart was removed on Monday morning and taken to the airport.
This wasn’t the first case of organ transplant in Kolkata. Both private and government hospitals have conducted such procedures, but never for a heart patient. Also, so far, no transplant operations have been successful in Kolkata. “If we see past cases, then definitely its too early to consider the case a successful operation, but it’s always good to be positive. This will surely be a moment of pride if the patient recovers completely,” a senior doctor of SSKM Hospital said.