Tamil Nadu   

14 years hence... his heart endures

Ramya Kannan

On July 19, 1992, surgeons replaced his heart

CHENNAI: Vishnampet S. Vaidhyanathan had a change of heart in 1992.

Quite literally, on July 19, 1992, surgeons replaced his `beyond-repair' heart with a healthy one.

Fourteen years hence, it still beats vibrantly in his chest cavity. And Prof. Vaidhyanathan joins the group of heart transplantees (50 per cent) who live beyond 10 years.

Prof. Vaidhyanathan, recently retired from the State University of New York at Buffalo as Professor of Biophysics and Physiology, now thinks about others who could benefit from his experience, and time. He and his wife, Virginia, have travelled from Florida, where they live currently, to Chennai (his home town) because they think his "personal experience ... maybe of some value and encouragement for future recipients of organs in transplant."

The Vaidhyanathans were invitees at a symposium on `Heart Failure: Comprehensive Management' organised by the National Network for Organ Sharing along with Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Christian Medical College - Vellore, Indian Institute of Technology - Madras and Ohio State University, U.S.

In retrospect

A badly weakened heart left Prof. Vaidhyanathan with little choice: three years of life or a heart transplant. He obviously voted for life. Though he is the very picture of jollity, there had been phases of depression in his life, especially as he waited for a donor heart. "Waiting for a heart is one of the most stressful times, to be endured by the patient and his family," he says, having had to wait not once, but twice for the right match. A planned surgery at Buffalo General Hospital had to be called off due to health problems; it was the second one at Cleveland Clinic, Ohio that succeeded.

It succeeded, thanks to a combination of luck, great surgeons, a clutch of pills he continues to take. Following dietary restrictions, changing lifestyle and losing weight are some of the other musts, as any heart transplant surgeon would hasten to add.

Standing proof

"I am here today to encourage and support this conference. I am standing proof of the success of heart transplants," Prof.Vaidhyanathan stresses. His and his wife's purpose, however, is much larger. They have started the India-United States Transplant Foundation in Aventura, Florida to support transplant programmes in India. Their logic is that services available at high costs in a foreign land to those who can afford it must also be available at affordable rates for Indians in their own country.

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