Relief for HIV+ heart patients

March 19, 2010

TNN, Mar 19, 2010, 01.14am IST

BANGALORE: Raising the hopes for lakhs of HIV-positive persons across the

country, Bangalore-based Narayana Hrudayalaya has done a breakthrough by

successfully conducting a heart surgery on a fully blown HIV-positive patient.

Thirty-five-year-old Shankar (name changed) met with an accident four years ago.

While getting treatment for his injured leg, he contracted the deadly HIV-virus

during a blood transfusion. Over a period of time, the blood clot in the leg

began to spread to the heart and lungs. The pressure on the lungs began on show

on the right side of the heart, which began to fail. Barring his wife, everyone

in his family deserted him.

" When he came to us two weeks ago, he was almost bedridden. We conducted the

Pulmonary Endarterectomy. Since he was HIV positive, we had to take extra

precautions while conducting the surgery. We use nearly 100 needles and even if

one gets infected, it is dangerous. But we decided to take on the challenge and

operated him, " Dr Devi Shetty, chief cardiac surgeon at Narayana Hrudayalaya

told The Times of India.

Narayana Hrudayalaya does the second largest number of this surgery in the

world.

" The idea was to tell the world that it is safe to operate HIV patients too.

There is no doubt that it is risky and extra precautions must be ensured during

the surgery, " Shetty said.

IT IS RE-BIRTH FOR ME

Many hospitals refused to treat me because I was carrying the deadly virus. No

one even cared if I died. It was not my fault that I became HIV-positive. I was

almost bedridden. Dr Shetty is like God to me. He has given me new life. All I

want to say is that there is nothing to fear in life. Being HIV-positive is a

different issue but other health problems need to be treated as well. Just have

courage to fight... (he breaks down).

HOW WAS IT DONE

During the six-hour open heart surgery, the body temperature is reduced to 18

degree (the normal temperature is 37 degree). The surgery is conducted in

circulatory arrest, where the patient's body is frozen and entire blood

collected to a reservoir.

According to Dr Shetty the entire operation is conducted when the body is

bloodless. Post-surgery the blood is pumped back into the body and the

temperture is restored to 37 degrees.

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