When 11-year-old Agalya from Nagercoil started experiencing difficulty in breathing, she was diagnosed with Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy, a condition that could potentially lead to heart failure. With her father working as a security officer, all her family could do was wait with her name registered on the transplant list and hope for speedy treatment.
In the case of 17-year-old Tushitha, a XII standard student from Chennai, when she was diagnosed with severe breathlessness and symptoms suggestive of severe heart failure, her family was distraught. The daughter of a battery salesman, Tushitha was registered on the state’s transplant registry, like Agalya, and was waiting in line to receive a new heart.
Both these young girls have now received a new lease of life with help from Aishwarya Trust, a non-profit organisation serving for over a decade to support medical expenses of the deserving patient from the economically underprivileged section of the society.
Heart transplant surgeries for the two was performed at MGM Healthcare by the team of transplant doctors, led by Dr KR Balakrishnan and Dr Suresh Rao KG at a concessional price.
In a press release, Dr Suresh, Co-Director - Heart and Lung Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support, noted that the timeliness of the surgeries helped save their lives. “Heart failure causes dysfunction of other organs in the body due to lack of sufficient blood supply. It was a challenge to keep end-stage heart failure patients in a good condition till they get a suitable heart. These kids were lucky to get the heart transplant before other organs were dysfunctional,” he had said.
Talking about their road to recovery, Dr Balakrishnan, Chairman - Cardiac Sciences and Director - Heart and Lung Transplant & Mechanical Circulatory Support, had said, “I am happy that both have responded well to the procedure and they can soon move back into their daily routine.”
Sharing her happiness over the success of the transplant surgeries, Chitra Viswanathan, Managing trustee and Co Founder of Aishwarya Trust had noted that the trust has supported over 3500 congenital heart surgeries and 87 heart transplants since 2014 and will continue to do so in future as well.