S Shibu had been undergoing treatment following a road accident on December 14. (File photo)
When the heart of a 46-year-old Kerala youth began beating in the body of a 21-year-old Nepali orphan girl, it marked a major win not only for the recipient but also for the Ernakulam government hospital, which performed the transplant — the first district-level healthcare unit in India to achieve such a milestone.
On Monday, the heart of S Shibu, a native of Kollam, was harvested at the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, where he was declared brain-dead, and flown to Kochi by an air ambulance after his family approved cadaver donation. For Kerala, the transplant marks a watershed moment — a testament to its strong secondary healthcare.
Shibu had been undergoing treatment following a road accident on December 14. On Saturday, doctors declared him as brain dead and the family agreed to donate his organs. On Monday a team of doctors from the general hospital Ernakulam harvested his heart at the Government Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram and flew it to Ernakulam, where Durga Kami from Nepal had been waiting.
Faced with a life-threatening cardiac ailment, she had obtained a high court order on December 11, which directed the state health department to give priority to her on the list of applicants waiting for a donor heart.
Kerala Health Minister Veena George, in her Facebook post, applauded the development.
“From hope to heartbeat. Heart transplant surgery at the government general hospital Ernakulam. First time in a district hospital in the history of our country. We extend our profound respect and gratitude to the organ donor’s family, whose selfless and compassionate decision has given the gift of life to a young person,” she said.
The surgery, which was performed by an eight-member team at the general hospital, was done free of cost. The state health department bore the cost to the tune of Rs 12 lakh for the surgery. Apart from the heart, Shibu’s kidney, liver, skin and eyes were also harvested for various patients in different hospitals.
Having lost her parents at the age of seven, Durga Kami, along with her brother, has been under the care of the Maya Sadan Orphanage, Bheri Ganga, Suekhet, in Nepal. Kami suffers from cardiac sarcoidosis, a rare and serious heart condition that both her mother and elder sister died of, and came to Kerala for treatment in July this year.
A medical board reviewing her case recommended an urgent heart transplant, saying she was at risk of sudden cardiac death given her family history. It also said she was not fit to travel to Nepal or undertake long-distance travel.
While she was listed among patients waiting for surgery, there was a delay in finding a donor. Aggrieved, she approached the high court, which, on December 11, ordered that her application be prioritised.
Her brother Thilak Kami told the media that he was thankful to the Kerala government. “It is all God’s plan. We had gone to other places also for surgery. Kerala has helped us. We are very happy the doctors and the staff of the hospital stood with us,” he said.