A 52-year-old man from Howrah who has been living with heart failure since 2016 underwent heart transplant at Howrah’s Narayana Superspeciality Hospital on Wednesday.
The man was admitted to the hospital several times in the past year, said a doctor who was in the team that did the transplant.
“We received an update on Tuesday that a 56-year-old person had passed away at SSKM Hospital. His heart matches the requirements of the 52-year-old man. A team of doctors from our hospital did the harvesting on Wednesday,” said Debasis Das, a cardiac surgeon who was a member of the team that conducted the transplant.
The organ was brought to the Howrah hospital around 3pm on Wednesday. The transplant started at 3.30pm and took about four-and-a-half hours.
Doctors listed the man for transplant about three months back. He could not be listed earlier because of high lung pressure.
“The patient is stable and has been shifted to the ICU. He is still on ventilation. We will observe him for a few days,” Das said on Wednesday evening.
Das said that because of heart failure the 52-year-old man could not perform normal activities. Heart failure meant that the heart could not pump sufficient blood, as a result of which the man developed breathlessness. Also, fluid accumulated in various parts of his body.
Besides Das, the surgical team had Nilanjan Dutta and Pradeep Narayan.
The cardiology team had Munna Das, Amitabha Chattopadhyay, Sanjiban Ghosh and Jayita Nandi.
The anesthesia and critical care team had Manish Sharma, Rangan Koley and Shubhadeep Das.