KEM Hospital gets nod for heart transplant surgeries

Mumbai: The state government has given its nod to civic-run KEM Hospital to perform heart-transplant surgeries. After getting government permission, the hospital administration has started conducting training sessions for its medicos. According to doctors attached to the heart department however, very few patients requiring a heart transplant are visiting the hospital’s OPD.

Dr Avinash Supe, dean, KEM Hospital, said, “It is an assertive move and a major boost to affordable transplants.”

“We are planning to set up a special heart transplant unit in the hospital in our cardiac ward, for which, we had applied to the state government and we have received the state government’s permission,” he said.

Dr Supe further added, “A heart transplant is a very complicated procedure, and we need trained doctors and staff for this, so, training is a must. After the doctors are trained, we will start the heart transplant procedures.”

Dr Balaji Aironi, assistant professor, heart surgery department, said, “The waiting list of organ transplant patients is too high. Compared to this, the availability of organs is less.”

“In private hospitals, the cost is high and people cannot afford as it is almost `25 to `30 lakh for a heart transplant. At KEM, it will be one-third of the cost,” he said.

In India, back in 1968, Dr P.K. Sen performed the first heart transplant surgery in civic-run KEM hospital, but the recipient could not survive for long.