First heart transplant surgery in Malabar region performed

Kozhikode: In what is claimed to be the first such surgery in Malabar region of Kerala, the heart of a brain dead person was Friday successfully transplanted to a 54-year-old patient at a private hospital here.

The surgery was performed on Shamsuddin of Manjeri at Metro International Cardiac Centre by a team of doctors led by Dr P Nandakumar. The transplant surgery, which began at 5.30 am, was completed after six hours.

Dr Nandakumar said, "there is no pumping support by a machine for the transplanted heart now. The patient is in ICU with ventilator support only."

"It is team work and with co-operation of all concerned we have successfully performed the surgery. It took only an hour and twenty minutes, from 4.00 am, to bring the harvested heart from Kannur to Kozhikode," he said.

The donor Vijesh Parambath (30) was declared brain dead at the AKG hospital in Kannur last evening.

He was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday with head injuries suffered from a stray bullet when he had gone hunting in the forest at Puliangode near Mattanur in Kannur district.

After Vijesh's father and relatives consented to donate his organs, a team of doctors led by Dr Nandakumar, Chief Cardiothoracic Surgeon of MICC, went to AKG hospital to conduct the organ harvesting procedure.

District administration made all arrangements for easy transportation of the harvested heart from Kannur to Kozhikode by regulating the traffic between 3.00 am and 6.00 am today.

The kidneys were donated to Baby Memorial Hospital and the liver to Kozhikode Medical College Hospital.

Police said on October 13 night, Vijesh along with four others had gone into the forest for hunting wild boar and a stray bullet hit him on the head.

The four persons were arrested yesterday and have been remanded to judicial custody.