A team of doctors at National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) Karachi have successfully performed the first ever mechanical heart transplant in Pakistan.
The complicated surgery was performed on the 62-year-old Nafeesa Begum by Dr Pervez Chaudhry and his team of 8 experts. Head of NICVD, Dr Nadeem Qamar had earlier invited Dr Pervez to join the NICVD team.
Talking about the surgery, the Administrator of NICVD Dr Hameedullah Malik explained that the procedure can be carried out only if all the other organs of the body are working normally. Nafeesa Begum qualified for the case. Before the transplant, her heart was functioning at 15% of its total capacity.
A regular heart transplant is as though inserting a new heart in the body but in a mechanical heart transplant the organ is not replaced. In fact, the valve or the pumping mechanism is fixed by using a device. This device then pumps blood across the body.
Mr Malik added that they had been working on initiating the new department for about six months and have finally been able to get it going.
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With the procedure, Nafeesa Begum has become the only person to have received the state-of-the-art treatment in the country and according to her doctors, she will be transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) soon as she is doing fine.
The procedure was earlier scheduled to be performed on former Hockey Olympian Mansoor Ahmed. However, he suffered another heart attack before the surgery and passed away.
With procedure costing over a Crore Rupees, it is currently being sponsored by NICVD and donors.
These are provincial govt hospitals right?