Staff Reporter :
The first artificial heart transplant was conducted in the country on Thursday.
It was done in a 42 years woman’s body in the United Hospital, Gulshan in the capital.
Dr. Jahangir Kabir, a prominent physician said it to the media.
The physician said that through the successful operation the country’s dream became a reality and witnessed a wonderful advance in the medical sector.
“Heart failure is a major cause of death. Preventing such death by transplanting an artificial heart in the soil of the country was our dream. Today the dream has been fulfilled,” Dr. Jahangir Kabir said in a press briefing in this regard in the hospital. The physician said that there was a long effort behind this success.
“We tried for 14 to 15 years for this. In several occasions, all necessary preparations were taken but unluckily the patients died before starting the process,” Dr. Jahangir Kabir said.
The Chief Cardiac Surgeon and Director of Cardiac Centre of the hospital attributed the success to the patients and her family.
“The patients and her family’s contributed largely to the success as they trusted us on the very important matter,” he said.
“No one can trust on giving the heart. We created the confidence and they also came forward. As a result the success was attained,” Dr. Jahangir Kabir said.
The patients had taken medical treatment for her heart complications in Singapore, Malaysia and Turkey.
But her cardiac problem remained unchanged.
In this situation, the medical team of the hospital proposed her for surgery for transplanting an artificial heart.
The patients and her family agreed to it.
The doctor said, this treatment is very costly.
The price of the machine used for the transplantations is about Tk one crore.
The artificial heart has been imported from the USA.
The cost of the surgery is about Tk 1.25 crore including hospital costs and operations expenditures, the surgeon said.
Dr. Jahangir Kabir said that they have goodwill to reduce the cost.
“If the government comes forwad, the cost of such surgery would be lowered to people’s ability,” he said.
The specialists physicians, took part in the surgery was present in the press briefing.
Earlier, on Wednesday, a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) has been transplanted in the patient’s heart.
Dr. Jahangir Kabir and his fellow colleagues transplanted the mechanical heart named heart mate-3 in the left ventricle in the patient’s heart in a four hour long surgery.
Later, the heart activities came back in normal position, the physicians said.
The physicians said that heart transplant is a lone treatment in cases of heart failure in the developed world.
If patients fail to get a donated heart, transplanting mechanical ones is an only alternative, physicians said.
Transplanting a mechanical or artificial heart can secure normal life for the patients.
