The 30-year old woman who underwent a heart transplant surgery on Thursday gave bhai phonta to the doctors with powdered paracetamol on Friday.

Tanaya Pandit from Raghunathganj in Murshidabad was in the operating theatre between 3.45am and 5am on Thursday and regained consciousness around 9am on Friday. She was taken off ventilation soon after and surprised everyone with her first wish — she wanted to give bhai phonta to the doctors at Fortis Hospital Anandapur.

“We were extremely surprised that she actually

remembered which day it was so soon after being taken off ventilation and even remembered it was Bhai Phonta,” said cardiac surgeon Tapas Raychaudhury, who along with surgeon K.M. Mandana had led the team of doctors that

conducted the surgery on Thursday.

In the absence of chandan (sandalwood paste) and kajal, traditionally used to give phonta, the nurses of the isolation room in the intensive care unit, where Tanaya is recuperating, ground a paracetamol tablet and created a paste with water for her to give a phonta to Raychaudhury around 1pm and Mandana a couple of hours later.

“She did all this 30 hours after the surgery and just three hours after being taken off ventilation, which is remarkable for a recipient in a heart transplant,” said Raychaudhury.

Tanaya, who has done her post graduation in economics from Visva-Bharati, has been suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscles loosen and its pumping capacity reduces, since 2010 and doctors had said heart transplant was the only answer.

Tanaya’s blood parameters were stable and pulmonary artery pressure normal on Friday. Immuno-suppresants have been introduced so that the body does not reject the new heart, doctors said.

Raychaudhury attributed her initial speedy recovery to her age and the fact that the transplanted heart was a perfect match. But she must be kept under strict monitoring to guard her from infections, he said.

“Being young, all her other organs were very healthy. So, we were sure that if the heart transplant surgery went well, she would recover sooner than others,” said Raychaudhury.

Something else that went in Tanaya’s favour was a perfect match with her donor, Debolina Ghosh from Sonarpur, who had been declared brain dead at AMRI Hospitals Dhakuria on Wednesday.

Ghosh, 25, and Pandit, 30, were in the same age group.

“The blood groups of the donor and recipient have to match but in this case some of the sub-groups also matched which was a good indicator,” Raychaudhury said.