IGIMS doctors perform open heart surgery

PATNA: Open heart surgery was performed for the first time at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) on Tuesday.

A team of seven doctors, headed by Dr Shiel Avneesh of the hospital’s cardio-thoracic and vascular surgery department, performed the operation on 30-year-old Ranju Devi, who was suffering from atrial septal defect (ASD), a birth defect that causes a hole in the wall between the heart’s upper chambers (atria). Ranju, a Jakkanpur resident, had been complaining of shortness of breath, heart palpitations and fatigue.

“The patient is stable now and she has been kept under observation,” said one of the doctors who performed the operation on her.

Meanwhile, the IGIMS’s ENT department also conducted cochlear transplant for the first time on Tuesday. Three-year-old Priti Kumari from Madhubani and five-year-old Khushi Gupta from Patna City were successfully operated upon and implanted with cochlear implants at the hospital. Both the girls were deaf and dumb since birth. Priti had been diagnosed at the age of one and Khushi at one-and-a-half-year.

Dr Rakesh Kumar from the otorhinolaryngology department of AIIMS-New Delhi conducted the operation. He was assisted by ENT department head of IGIMS Dr Rakesh Kumar Singh and other doctors. “The two kids will undergo speech and audio therapy for the next one year. It would be another 1-2 years before they start speaking and hearing properly,” said Dr Rakesh Kumar Singh.