Fortis Healthcare’s ‘More to Give’ Campaign envisages towards creating awareness around the importance of organ donation
Two patients with advanced heart failure have received new lease of life, thanks to the dedicated team of doctors at Fortis Hospital who used latest advancements in medical technology to help them lead a normal life.
Twenty-two years old Rohan Manral, who suffered from Restrictive Cardiomyopathy — a very rare condition in which patient continues to deteriorate and ultimately collapses due to severe heart failure — underwent a heart transplant on July 26 last year. He received a donor heart from a deceased 25-year-old, who had passed away as a result of a road traffic accident.
The heart was transferred from a Fortis Hospital facility in Vasant Kunj to Fortis Escorts Heart Institute (FEHI), also in New Delhi, through a green corridor, which helped the team transporting it cover a distance of 14 kms in a matter of 18 minutes and 5 seconds.
Rohan, who required a very intense treatment in the post-operative period because of his preoperative conditions, has made a good recovery and is doing well. He is following up regularly with Fortis’s heart failure clinic.
The other case was that of 42-year-old Pankaj Mittal, who suffered a massive heart failure and lost his pulse on the evening of August 19th 2017. He received an implantation of left ventricular assist device (LVAD) 11 days after he was revived at FEHI by administering CPR and DC shock. He too has now recovered and is leading a normal life.
“The disease burden of cardiovascular disorders is rapidly increasing across the country because of stress,poor lifestyle, and consumption of junk food, alcohol and smoking. In many cases, heart diseases go undetected in early age leading to worsening of heart function and finally causing heart failure,” said Dr ZS Meharwal, Director, Cardio-Thoracic Vascular Surgery at FEHI, who was recently awarded with TV100 Healthcare Excellence Award for “Outstanding achievement in Healthcare” by Uttrakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.
The cases of Manral and Mittal highlight that the myth that heart ailments and heart failure only affect the geriatric population and are limited to Tier I cities is gradually falling apart.
Doctors have recorded a rise in the number of patients suffering from varied cardiac related conditions such as congenital defects, valve problems, blockages of arteries of the heart, lifestyle disorders and viral infections. These afflictions affect the functioning of heart in the young, middle aged and elderly population alike.
It is with the aim of creating awareness around the issue of organ donation — which would eventually save more lives like that of Manral — Fortis Healthcare has launched the ‘More to Give’ campaign, which was awarded the best Corporate Social Responsibility initiative of 2016.
The organ donation rate in the country has picked up from 0.05 per million to 0.8 per million population over the last 5 years. In India, the current organ donation rate is 0.26 donors per million population as compared to more than 30 donors per million in some Western countries. There is serious shortage of organs and the gap between the number of organs donated and the number people waiting for transplants is ever increasing.
