01 November 2010
By Pratibha Masand
Mumbai, India
Reason To Rejoice
Cardiac patients needing a heart transplant now have a reason to celebrate, as the next generation of heart transplants is here. While the first permanent artificial heart was implanted in a teenage Italian boy earlier this month, Indian cardiologists believe that soon enough, the facility will be available here too.
Dr P Venugopal, who had done the first heart transplant in India, believes that the artificial transplant will be "the next big step" in the field of transplants in India. "Earlier, we had to keep a patient on a paracorporial device which was a machine kept outside the body. This device would act like a heart for the patient till he got a donor for a transplant. This meant a much longer stay in the hospital. Later, we started using temporary artificial devices. The patient could go for about 2 years with these devices and acted as a bridge for the patient till he got a donor," said Dr Venugopal, .
But the 15–year–old Italian boy who was implanted with the permanent artificial heart will lead a normal life. . Experts say, there are only certain type patients in whom the permanent artificial heart can be implanted.
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