G. RAVIKIRAN
A 12-year old girl from Nellore city overcame her 10-year-long ordeal after she underwent successful heart transplant surgery at Fortis Centre for Hearth Failure and Transplant at Fortis Malar, Chennai, recently.
Mahalakshmi suffered from serious heart condition when she was two years old and there was deterioration in the last couple of years when her name was put on the transplant list. A team of Fortis doctors led by Dr. K.R. Balakrishnan closely monitored her condition and found that she was developing multiple problems including her kidney getting deteriorated.
Her heart’s pumping capacity came down to just 15 per cent. Fortunately for her, she got eligible for receiving heart from an accident victim in Tamil Nadu and transplant was successfully done last month.
“A suitable heart was found after a one month wait. Awareness should be increased to resolve dearth of organs and give patients a second lease of life,” said Dr. Suresh Rao, who is on the doctors’ team, Fortis.
They said that nearly five lakh people were losing their lives every year due to lack of availability of organs for transplant in the country.