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A beat in time saves nine
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The KMC Heart Centre in Mangalore now has state-of-the-art intervention facility
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DAKSHINA KANNADA has carved a niche for itself in the field of education, banking, and healthcare. While education and banking have always seen an upward trend, the health sector is also fast catching up, bringing home the benefits of latest advances in the field to people of the district and adjoining places as well. In fact, Mangalore is fast emerging as the Medical Tourism Hub of Karnataka, after the state capital, Bangalore.
One such facility is the KMC Heart Centre located at the Kasturba Medical College (KMC), which was dedicated to the people by the Vice-Chancellor of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), H.S. Ballal. The heart centre aims to provide high quality care to all patients at an affordable cost. It will soon be part of the medical tourism circuit, mooted by MAHE. Presently, Manipal Hospital, Bangalore, is part of this circuit.
According to the Dean of KMC, C.V. Raghuveer, the centre headed by cardio-thoracic surgeon, Ashok B. Shetty, consists of interventional cardiologists, Venkatesh and Yusuf Kumble, cardio thoracic surgeon, Irineu Pereira, cardiac anaesthetists, Ramamoorthy Rao and Srinivas Rao. This qualified team of specialists backed by the state-of-the-art equipment needed to carry out complex procedures, also have trained paramedical staff in support.
Department of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery was equipped to carry out all varieties of heart operations. The institution started open-heart surgeries in 1997 and has conducted 125 surgeries so far. All varieties of heart surgeries, including correction of birth defects, repairs and replacements of valves are being conducted regularly in this centre. In fact, the first coronary artery bypass surgery in Mangalore, was carried out here.
The existing cardiology department of the centre has been transformed into a state-of-the-art interventional facility. The unique mechanism adopted in this department places the hospital in direct competition with healthcare in metros, adopting the latest technology such as complex multi-vessel angioplasty using drug-eluting stent, drug-eluting stent implantation. This addresses the need to treat patients without resorting to surgery. The department is also equipped with a cardiac catheterization lab, comprising of advanced facilities such as digital subtraction angiography, 2-D echocardiography, and colour Doppler, and others. It also has a state-of-the-art ambulance to cater to heart patients.
The Chief Operating Officer of KMC Hospitals, D.P. Saraswat said the Manipal group recognising the vast potential of medical tourism, had taken steps to promote it in the Middle East. He said plans were afoot to include KMC Hospital under this arrangement, presently available at a sister concern of the group at Bangalore. He also said that suitable packages were being evolved to cater to the interest of a target group of patients.
He opined that the hospital, in general, and the centre in particular, would cater to medical needs of people from Kannur in North Kerala to Goa, Madikeri, Sakleshpur, and other areas as well.
J.S.
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