At a time when health-care workers across the country are donning protective gear to deal with the COVID-19 crisis, a team of medical staff at the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) in Kottayam, a designated COVID care centre, on Saturday suited up to deliver a different, yet complex, treatment.
Three-hour surgery
In a surgery that lasted about three hours, a team led by T.K. Jayakumar, head of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, transplanted the heart of Sreekumar, 50, a native of Kallambalam in Thiruvananthapuram, into K.C. Jose, 62, from Thellakam, near here. Mr. Jose, a sawmill worker, was under treatment at the hospital here for about a year. “The heart, received from KIMS Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram under the Mrithasanjeevani scheme, was brought here by 5.15 a.m. and the surgery was over by 8.30 a.m. The patient remains stable and he will be under observation for a couple of weeks,” said Dr. Jayakumar. According to him, Mr. Jose had been waiting for a matching donor for more than six months.
Two-hour trip
The MCH authorities were informed about a matching heart on Friday morning. A team led by Dr. Jayakumar rushed to the capital city and completed the medical check-up. The donor’s heart was brought to the MCH in around two hours with police support. The medical kit required for the surgery was brought from Ernakulam with the support of the Fire and Rescue Services.
Sreekumar, the donor, had met with an accident and was declared brain dead. His relatives agreed to donate his organs, including heart, liver and two kidneys.
The transplant surgery on Saturday was the sixth such to be performed at the hospital. “Despite being a designated COVID-19 care centre, we have been attending to all critical non-COVID cases, including heart and kidney failures, during this period,” added Dr. Jayakumar
Health Minister K.K. Shylaja said organ donation had come to a halt across the world with the COVID-19 crisis deepening. The State, however, could perform it successfully as it had reined in the viral outbreak. The first heart transplant in a government hospital in the State was performed here on September 16, 2015.
