Dr K R Balakrishnan, Chairman - Cardiac Sciences, Director - Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant & Mechanical Circulatory Support, MGM Healthcare and his team were felicitated by Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways, on Saturday, September 3 in the presence of Ma Subramanian, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu, for having performed over 500 heart and lung transplants successfully in India and running the largest adult and paediatric heart transplant program in India. Incidentally, the record 500 plus heart and lung transplants is the highest number performed by one team in the entire Asia Pacific region. Jagarnath Mahto, Minister of Prohibition and Excise of Jharkhand; Dr Sunil Shroff, Managing Trustee, Mohan Foundation; and M K Rajagopalan, Chairman- MGM Healthcare, Chennai were also present.
On the occasion, Nitin Gadkari also unveiled India’s first ‘prototype’ drone technology co-created by MGM Healthcare, aimed at revolutionising last mile transportation of organs for transplants. Ma Subramanian commended the prototype and said that this would pave the way for more lives to be saved and ensured all support to make it operational soon.
Dr Balakrishnan said, “As of now, we have successfully completed 514 transplants and this was possible with the tremendous support and expertise of the team, the government bodies and transport teams. The prototype showcased today, gives us more ammunition to accelerate the transplant program and save more lives. The infrastructure and support by MGM Healthcare also helped us treat over 350+ ECMO patient which is once again the highest in the country. Not only this, but we have also performed over 100 paediatric transplants and over 4600 interventional cases, free of cost in association with Aishwarya Trust – ‘Caring for Little Hearts’ and completed over 220 procedures under the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s scheme.”
Dr Ravikumar R, Sr Consultant & Associate Clinical Lead -Cardiology & Heart Failure Program, MGM Healthcare said, “Heart failure is an under recognised problem in India. The quality of life and longevity of end stage heart failure patients not responding to conventional therapy can be improved by advanced procedures like heart transplant and Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD).”