Dr Z S Meharwal, Director, Cardio-Thoracic Vascular Surgery

Dr Z S Meharwal, Director, Cardio-Thoracic Vascular Surgery

Fortis Escorts Heart Institute (FEHI), New Delhi organised a conference at Dehradun on Monday, highlighting two case studies from the region who underwent advanced cardiac procedures due to failing hearts. Being a centre of excellence in cardiac care, FEHI is a pioneer in many cardiac procedures including  left ventricular assist devices.

The disease burden of cardiovascular disorders is rapidly increasing across the country because of stress, poor lifestyle, and consumption of junk food, alcohol and smoking. In many cases, heart diseases go undetected in early age leading to worsening of heart function and finally causing heart failure, Dr Z S Meharwal, Director, Cardio-Thoracic Vascular Surgery at FEHI said.

Following were the case studies presented by Fortis:  

Rohan Manral, 22 years old, underwent a heart transplant on July 26th 2017. He received a donor heart from a deceased 25-year-old, who had passed away as a result of a road traffic accident. The heart had been transferred from a Fortis Hospital facility in Vasant Kunj to FEHI via a green corridor. According to Dr Meharwal, who performed the transplant, Rohan had been suffering from symptoms of heart failure since 2013. He had severe breathlessness on mild exertion and swelling of both legs. He used to get breathlessness even while resting.

Eventually, he was uated and diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy and severe heart dysfunction. Restrictive cardiomyopathy is a very rare and serious condition in which patient continues to deteriorate and ultimately collapses due to severe heart failure. The only treatment for this disease is heart transplantation. Rohan required very intense treatment in the post-operative period because of his preoperative conditions. However he finally made a good recovery and was discharged in a stable condition. Currently, he is doing well and is following up regularly with Fortiss heart failure clinic.

The second case was of 47-year-old Pankaj Mittal who became unresponsive and lost his pulse on the evening of August 19th 2017. The patient was revived by administering CPR and DC shock, after which he was swiftly intubated and moved to the intensive care unit. It took him 11 days to recover. This was the second time in less than a month that Mittal had a near miss with death.

Earlier in 2011, Dr Meharwal had performed his aortic valve replacement for severe leakage of the valve. He had been following up with the local hospital. He was admitted twice with symptoms indicative of heart failure and renal failure, as a result of which he required dialysis. In view of his clinical condition, he was advised implantation of left ventricular assist device (LVAD), which was done on the August 30th 2017 at FEHI. A LVAD is a device which helps the heart patient stable till he/she undergo a successful heart transplant. It helps a patient lead a near normal life.

Fortis Healthcares  More to Give campaign which aims at creating awareness around the issue of organ donation was awarded as the best Corporate Social Responsibility initiative of 2016.

The organ donation rate in the country has picked up from 0.05 per million to 0.8 per million population over the last 5 years. In India, the current organ donation rate is 0.26 donors per million population as compared to more than 30 donors per million in some western countries. There is serious shortage of organs and the gap between the number of organs donated and the number people waiting for transplants is ever increasing.

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