A 19-year-old girl from Karachi has received a heart transplant from a donor who is from Chennai, India, on January 31.
Ayesha Rashid, suffering from a heart condition, had a cardiac arrest in 2019. She travelled to Chennai for a medical evaluation. But in the years that followed, her condition became worse and so, she made her way to India once again in 2023.
Adding to the complications were financial hindrances. Ayesha is the daughter of a single mother. But Dr KR Balakrishnan, renowned Chief of Heart Transplant at MGM Healthcare in Chennai, took up the case in collaboration with Aishwaryam, a healthcare trust based in Chennai.
The heart donated to Ayesha was airlifted from Delhi to Chennai and the procedure was then performed.
“This child first came to us in 2019, soon after she came her heart stopped. We had to do CPR and put an artificial heart pump. With that she recovered and went back to Pakistan, then she became sick again, her heart failure worsened and she required repeated hospitalisation and in that country (Pakistan), it’s not easy, because the equipment required is not there and they had no money,” said Dr KR Balakrishnan, chairman of Institute of Heart and Lung transplant and Mechanical Circulatory support.
Co-directer, Dr Suresh Rao, also explains that the institute is the largest heart transplant centre — with around 100 transplants a year. And in times when Indians do not require the transplant, foreigners are given a chance at it as well.
Ayesha Rashid was discharged from the hospital on April 17.
Leave a Reply