Heart Transplant in times of CORONA by Dr Kunal Sarkar
Ambar Bhattacharya, abptakmaa, Kolkata, 27th Apr 2020 : Mr Amit Kumar Dey, 45 yrs old gentleman (Medica UHID-466198) residing at Debogram, Ilam Bazar, P.S.-Kaliganj, Dist-Nadia, Pin-741137, a Shopkeeper by profession consulted Dr. Kunal Sarkar in the month of January 2020 with end stage heart failure. He had suffered massive myocardial Infarction. His heart function was severely compromised as it had affected both right and left ventricle.
He was put on the list of organ recipient in ROTTO Portal after appropriate investigation. His heart function became much worse and was admitted in Medica Superspecialty Hospital on 17th Feb, 2020. He remained very critically ill, suffered two cardiac arrests. He was on ventilator with Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump (IABP) support.
Considering his critical condition we requested ROTTO to give priority for organ allocation. By the first week of March as all of us were getting anxious about CORONA situation, it was looking less and less likely that this gentleman could make it to the transplant.
Fortunately on 17th March, 2020 we were alerted by ROTTO that one donor heart is available at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Science (IGIMS), Patna. Our retrieval team was rushed to IGIMS (Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences), in the early morning of 18th March, 2020.
The heart was harvested and transported to Kolkata within two hours. This would not have been possible without the outmost collaboration of IGIMS, Patna Police, Indigo Airline, ROTTO, Bidhannagar Police and Kolkata Police.
We are also deeply indebted to the family of the organ Donor.
The Heart Transplant was done successfully on 18th March, 2020. Mr Dey made a good recovery without any complications. In the mean time because of the Lockdown situation his discharge had to be delayed.
We have utilized this time to make a thorough assessment of his home situation. Maintaining hygiene, nutrition and minimum contact will be very important and more so in this period of Covid pandemic. His family members have been trained and counselled thoroughly on home management. We have planned to discharge Mr. Dey on 21st April, 2020.
This entire exercise would not have been possible without support of Medica Superspecialty Hospital and its benefactors. The entire expenses of this two months period have been supported by the hospital.
The Heart Transplant team of Medica Superspecialty Hospital:
Dr. Kunal Sarkar, Dr Sandip Sardar, Dr Arpan Chakraborty, Dr Dipanjan Chatterjee, Dr Soumyajit Ghosh, team Perfusionists and Physician Assistant.
We will continue to follow him up and wish him the best for the future.
