Ernakulam General Hospital in Kerala is set to conduct its first heart transplant on Monday, December 22, a milestone that will make it the first general
hospital in the country to perform the complex procedure, according to hospital authorities.
The donor heart, retrieved from a 47-year-old Kollam native who was declared brain dead following a road accident, will be transplanted into a 23-year-old Nepali national, Durga Kami, also known as Arpana, who has been undergoing treatment in Kerala for nearly a year.
According to news reports, an eight-member medical team from Ernakulam GH, including senior cardiothoracic surgeons Dr George Valuran, Dr Paul Thomas, and Dr Geo Paul, travelled to Thiruvananthapuram on Monday morning to retrieve the organ from the Government Medical College Hospital. The heart was later transported to Kochi for the transplant.
Kami has been suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic condition that causes abnormal thickening of the heart muscle. Her mother and sister had earlier succumbed to the same illness. Doctors said she had been on the transplant waiting list for several months, with her condition steadily worsening.
Originally from Nepal, Kami had been staying at an orphanage and learned about advanced treatment facilities in Kerala. She travelled to the state earlier this year with her brother, supported by well-wishers, in search of the life-saving treatment.
As a foreign national, she was not entitled to priority allocation under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act. She subsequently approached the Kerala High Court, which granted her priority status after considering her critical medical condition.
Apart from the heart, other organs from the donor were allocated to six recipients, officials said. Organ donation and transplantation activities in the state are coordinated by the Kerala State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (K-SOTTO).
Hospital authorities described the transplant as a landmark moment for public healthcare, underscoring the growing capabilities of district-level government hospitals in handling advanced medical procedures.
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