The Hindu : Kalam's gesture gives new lease of life to youth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 29, 2003

National

National

Kalam's gesture gives new lease of life to youth

By Y. Mallikarjun

HYDERABAD Dec.28. Words of encouragement from the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and approval by the indigent parents of a 22-year-old youth with serious heart ailment from Uttar Pradesh helped a team of cardiac surgeons to overcome their dithering and perform a high-risk, open-heart surgery to give a fresh lease of life to the youth.

Mohammed Islam, son of a rickshaw-puller from Khurja, a small town in Uttar Pradesh, was referred to the CARE hospital here by the President's press secretary, S.M.Khan after the boy's parents found it beyond their means to meet even a subsidised cost of Rs.80,000 at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for the surgery.

Islam, one of the 10 children of 65-year-old Mohammed Wahid, was not able to lead normal life and was frequently troubled by breathlessness, pain in the chest and palpitations. When he was brought to the hospital earlier this month, doctors found that he was suffering from aortic valve disease leading to severe dysfunction of the left ventricle.

Even as the doctors were contemplating whether to go ahead with the operation or not after evaluating the "high risk" involved in it, the President enquired about the boy's condition and said that everything would work out in the boy's favour when "good-hearted surgeons work selflessly", according to Arun Tiwari, Director, CARE Foundation.

The four-and-half hour surgery was conducted on December 12 during which the cardio-thoracic surgeons, "stopped the heart for about 40 minutes", removed the diseased aortic valve and replaced it with an imported one. The entire procedure was performed free of cost, Mr.Tiwari said.

Talking to The Hindu on Saturday, Dr. G. Nagasaina Rao and Dr. G. Rama Subrahmanyam, who performed the surgery, said that the youth came to the hospital with "severe heart failure".

These type of surgeries fall in the "high risk" category and 10 to 15 per cent of such patients die during the surgery or a few days later, they said. The young age of the patient was another major factor which helped them to overcome their dilemma and perform the surgery.

They said that Islam's valve got damaged due to rheumatic heart disease, which occurs due to neglect of throat infections during childhood.

An elated Islam, who is likely to be discharged in the next few days, said, "This is second life to me. I am feeling happy and a lot better. For the last three years, before the operation, I could not sleep and used to wake up at the dead of night with severe palpitations and pain in the chest."

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