CUTTACK: The SCB Medical College and Hospital has started the process to open a heart transplantation unit. Head of the Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS) department Prof Manoj Patnaik has written to the State government with a proposal for setting up a heart transplant unit at the department.
Prof Patnaik said that a heart transplant surgery unit can be operated from where open heart surgery and coronary Artery Bypass Graft surgery (CABG) procedures are being conducted. “The CTVS department is fully equipped and has all these facilities for the opening of a heart transplantation unit,” Prof Patnaik.
Amidst Covid scare, doctors of CTVS department have successfully conducted open heart surgery on around 200 patients during the last one year. Besides, two separate Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) units - the first ward having six machines and the second one with three machines - set up at CTVS department are also running successfully, he added.
Prof Patnaik said for heart replacement, Odisha has more recipients and fewer donors. “People are reluctant to donate their heart since there are many myths associated with organ donation. There is a need for massive awareness to motivate people to donate heart”, he said.