Before change of heart, a pump does the job

CHENNAI: A week after surgery, 46-year-old Mohana Thirupurasundari was spending time reading Bhagavad Gita in the intensive care ward of Frontier Lifeline on Wednesday. A mechanical pump that surgeons connected to her ailing heart pushes blood continuously and gives her weakened heart muscles some time to rest.

Dr K. M. Cherian talks to the patient, Mohanatirpurasundari, at the hospital

The woman, who suffered heart failure, could not be treated with medications or stem cell therapy. The doctors thought she would urgently require a pump as she had no time to wait for a heart transplant. But her health condition has improved after the surgery, the doctors said.

The pump, called the left ventricular assist device, comes in different models. Thirupurasundari got the one which is fitted outside the heart. The tubes were connected in and out of the left-ventricle and the aorta which were in turn connected to a pump outside the body.

The device leaves recipients without pulse as the pump keeps pushing blood without mimicking the heart’s own pulse beat. Thirupurasundari felt nothing unusual without the pulse. “I feel better now. I am able to breathe easy, my chest is lighter,” she said. Her vital parameters are beginning to look normal.

The surgery by a team of doctors at Frontier Lifeline eight days ago made the difference. Unlike conventional devices, the pumps do not contain seals or bearings and hence there is no wear and tear or risk of blood clotting. These pumps work on a magnetic levitation principle, where the blood is sucked and pushed.

Heart surgeon Dr KM Cherian of the Frontier Lifeline says these are not cures or substitutes for an ailing heart. The pump is meant to act as a bridge to transplant. The hospital has flagged an emergency for Thirupurasundari who is on the waiting list for heart transplant. “Until then she will be in the intensive care unit. We will be able to wait for up to 90 days with the equipment. By then we must be able to get the right donor,” he said.

Doctors believe that the best time to refer patients for such therapy is before kidney, liver and lung damage develops. Quality of pumps are also increasingly getting better. “Some pumps are fixed inside the heart. Such people can be sent home,” Dr Cherian said. Though the team prefers to wait for a few days to allow Thirupurasundari to adjust to the new pump and recover from the surgery, they say she is fit enough to undergo a heart transplant.

The cost of the implanting the assist device, its daily maintenance and investigations would cost Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh for 30 days. Patients will have to spend another Rs 10 lakh for a heart transplant. “We are willing to spend that money to save my mother,” said her daughter Karunya M, who has just graduated in medicine from China.

(This article is a reproduced as it is from a news item in ‘The Times of India’)

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-01/chennai/29953233_1_heart-device-intensive-care

Tags: artificial heart in india, best cardiac hospital in india, Cardiac Care, Dr.KM Cherian, Frontier Lifeline, heart pump, left ventriuclar assist device, medical tourism, mohana thirupurasundari, quality