Heart transplantation in Kochi hospital: Doctor says surgery successful

Kochi: Dr Jose Chacko Periappuram, the cardiac surgeon who performed the heart transplantation surgery on a 16-year-old boy at Lisie Hospital here on Saturday confirmed that surgery was successful. Addressing the media here, he confirmed that the boy is currently admitted to ICU. 

“ Harinarayanan's surgery is successfully completed. He was on the waiting list for organ donation for the past two months. We can confirm the surgery as a success only after 48 hours. But so far, the first phase has been successfully completed. He is on ventilator support now. We can declare the heart transplantation a success when Harinarayanan starts breathing normally without any medical support,” said the doctor. 

Harinarayanan received the heart of Kanyakumari native Selvin Shekhar (36), whose brain death was confirmed by doctors at a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. The organ was brought to Kochi in the government's helicopter from Thiruvananthapuram. Special traffic regulations were put in place to ensure the ambulance carrying the heart reached the hospital from the Bolgatty helipad without any hindrance.

Selvin Shekhar was a staff nurse at a hospital in Tamil Nadu. His heart, kidneys, pancreas and eyes were donated. One kidney was donated to a patient at KIMS Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram and the other kidney and pancreas were donated to a patient at Aster Medcity in Kochi. His eyes will be donated to two patients of Thiruvananthapuram Eye Hospital.

Organ donation is done through the state government's K-SOTO (Kerala State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation), which coordinates postmortem organ donation. Health Minister Veena George thanked Selvin's wife Geetha, who is also a staff nurse, for coming forward to donate the organs.