Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

MANGALORE: This coastal city’s prowess in medicine was proved yet again with doctors of Indiana Hospital performing a rare awake heart operation on a patient with the Bombay Blood group.

Sakleshpur resident Rukmini, 36, suffered from a common congenital heart disease, Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), but her case was complicated because she’s one among 180 persons worldwide with the rare Bombay Blood group.

This was a challenge for the team headed by Dr Yusuf Kumble, chief interventional cardiologist and managing director of the hospital, in association with Dr Manjunath, consultant cardiologist, who conducted a cath-angiogram study to decide on the surgery plan.

Dr Nisarga, chief consultant cardiac surgeon at the hospital, decided to do an awake cardiac surgery considering her the poor condition of her lungs.

Dr Nisarga said, “Her rare blood group was reconfirmed in various blood banks here. She had severe lung disease, a high risk factor and life-threatening to put her on general anaesthesia and ventilator during heart surgery. The awake surgery was performed by giving low cervical epidural anaesthesia which numbs only the chest.”

Dr Nisarga and his team conducted the 5-hour surgery on October 11. The patient was wide awake and conscious during the surgery. Her heart was cut open to correct the problem and her breathing was stopped for about four hours.

Although the required quantity of blood was kept ready, the surgery was conducted successfully without any transfusion.

The surgery was done free of cost under the state government’s Vajpayee Arogya Health Scheme. Dr Nisarga said the patient is recovering well and can resume her normal activities after being discharged.

Dr Nisarga said such a surgery has been done for the first in Dakshina Kannada district and an awake cardiac surgery with Bombay blood group is the first documented one in India.

The Bombay blood group is called so because it was discovered in Bombay by Dr Y M Bhende in 1952. These people cannot be given blood of any other group, Dr Nisarga, chief consultant and cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon.