What it took for this hospital to pull off Mizorams first heart surgery – EastMojo

Lalramchhuani was in a state of distress. She had been told by their doctor that her husband, who had been diagnosed with diabetes since 2003, had suffered a heart attack and would need surgery. Ramchhuani and her husband Vanlalawia, who have been married for forty years, have five children and three grandchildren and reside in the Nursery locality in Aizawl.

It was only recently that we came to know that my husband has a lung ailment. He was diagnosed with diabetes in 2003 and in 2018 we came to know that he has a nerve problem. We were admitted to the hospital because his diabetes levels were quite high but when we were about to be released, his body became cold and he started vomiting, she told EastMojo.

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The doctor, on seeing the condition of her husband, put him in the ICU where he reportedly kept vomiting through the night. Vanlalawia was then transferred to Trinity Hospital.

We were told he couldnt be treated with a stent and would need surgery. So we went home and after one week, we came back to the hospital on the date set for surgery. My husband was really hesitant to be operated upon.

Unbeknownst to Ramchhuani, her husband, despite the unfortunate circumstance of his ailment, was in for a medical stroke of luck. Trinity Hospital, a hospital in Aizawl that was established in 2020, had been preparing to procure the necessary equipment and professionals to perform heart surgery for months and on July 16, Vanlalawia became the first patient to receive heart surgery in the state of Mizoram.

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When we were told that he will be the first patient in Mizoram to have this surgery, we were a little hesitant. We were scared that things would not go as we hoped. But the operation was successful and he is much better now. We are very grateful to the hospital and to the doctors. They have given us new hope. Till today, they have not taken their eyes off him, the doctors who came to operate on him are still here and they are still looking after him. We thought they will leave after they finish the operation but we were wrong, they are looking after him day and night. This really comforts us. I even met my husband today and he was talking to me about a lot of things. This shows that his conscience is clear, said Ramchhuani, with a chuckle in her voice.

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Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Surgeon (CTVS) Dr Rahul Chandola and his team, Cardiac Surgeon Dr OP Sinha, Cardiac Anaesthetist Dr Jitendra Chauhan, and Perfusionist Dr Avinash travelled from Delhi to perform the CABG (Coronary Artery By-pass Graft) surgery.

According to Dr Chandola, the patient was a high-risk cardiac patient with his heart functioning at only 25%. He is reported to have recovered and is under the surveillance of the team. The team who has come from Delhi will be in Aizawl till the patient is released from the hospital.

The hospital set up a Cardiothoracic Lab and acquired the required machinery such as a heart-lung machine, intra-aortic pump and cardiac anaesthesia workstation so that such a surgery could be performed at the hospital.

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It took almost a year for us to put everything together, Dr. Lalrintluanga Jahau, the Trinity Hospital Director, told EastMojo.

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We have been talking and planning for the last at least eight months. Dr Rahul Chandola is a good friend and we kept meeting but it takes a lot of logistics to start a CABG program. We needed to have a heart-lung machine, we needed to have an Intra Aortic Pump, so even the machinery alone cost about Rs 1.5 to 2 crore.

When asked if Mizoram will be able to see more of such surgeries in the future, Jahau said, Dr Rahul promised me he will try to come almost every month. The plan is right now that he bring his entire team. Post operative, some are staying even now. Junior surgeon Dr Om Prakash will be staying here till the patient is discharged. This will be an ongoing thing for the next couple of months and we are hoping that some of our staff here will be trained as well.

Trinity hospital, despite being a young hospital has gained much attention for providing specialist services by doctors from outside the state.

That is what we are aiming for see, basically the reason we have gone for this is to give service to the people of Mizoram and I personally believe in the fact in this day and age that we should bring surgery to the people and not the people going outside because getting medical treatment outside your home state is very difficult for a lot of patients. Even for patients who can afford it is still preferable to have it done at home because support and care is much better at home. The vision of our group has always been to bring a state-of-the-art hospital to Mizoram and even those specialties which we are lacking. I firmly believe that we can always get doctors to come and have this because connectivity has improved greatly. Our vision has always been to bring high quality health care to the state of Mizoram, said Jahau.

He is hoping that bringing expert services to Mizoram will help reduce the cost incurred by patients who have to travel out of state for treatment.

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Basically, it is less expensive when we look at the entire logistics. For example, we are hoping and planning to have the surgery at the same rate as Delhi or Kolkata. We cannot compete with government hospitals but we will be comparing with corporate hospitals. Even this surgery will be at the same rate even though the expense was much greater than having it in Delhi as they are more in number plus they dont have to fly the entire team every time. But, overall for the patient it should be cheaper because they will not have any expense in traveling and lodging.

Having the first CABG surgery in Mizoram in 2022 has a unique element to it, according to Jahau.

It is quite unique because this is the 50th year since the first CABG surgery was done in the world. So this marks the 50th year. The first bypass surgery was done at John Hopkins in 1963, 4th of April, he said.

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What it took for this hospital to pull off Mizorams first heart surgery – EastMojo

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