Pak teen thanks Modi govt for heart transplant; mother says 'came to India without money...'

DOCTORS at MGM Healthcare Chennai have successfully performed a heart transplant on a teenager from Pakistan’s Karachi, news agency ANI reported on Friday.

The report said Ayesha Rashid’s, a 19-year-old, medical journey began in 2019 after a cardiac arrest in Karachi due to a pre-existing heart condition. She travelled to Chennai for medical evaluation. Despite her initial treatment, her health complications persisted, and she returned to Chennai in June 2023.

Dr KR Balakrishnan--renowned Chief of Heart Transplant at MGM Healthcare, emerged as a ray of hope for the teenager and her family. He not only recognized Ayesha’s medical problems but also her financial distress and collaborated with Aishwaryam, a Chennai-based healthcare trust, to finance her treatment

On January 31, 2024, a heart was airlifted from Delhi to Chennai, paving the way for Ayesha's lifesaving transplant surgery.

Reflecting on Ayesha's medical journey, and the financial challenges she faced, Dr Balakrishnan told ANI, ".. In that country (Pakistan), managing patients with artificial heart pumps is not easy because the equipment required to monitor them is not there. With great difficulty, she got the Visa and she came here with little money. We had to take care of all the expenses. 'Aishwaryam' trust came forward very generously to help, and they paid for other patients as well. Eventually, we got a heart donor from Delhi and she underwent the transplant... Outside of North America and Western Europe, not many countries can do this. The cost incurred here is a tiny fraction of what it would have cost in other countries in the world. Technology in this country is very good..."

The doctor said the patient just had a single mother and was not doing well financially, so he himself, along with Aishwaryam trust and some other heart patients came forward to help the 19-year-old.

"We are the largest centre doing heart transplants. We are doing almost 100 per year. One of the biggest numbers in the world I would say. And if there are no Indians then, it will be allotted to a foreigner. In this situation, this girl was waiting for almost ten months. Luckily, she got the heart," said Dr Suresh Rao, Co-director at the Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support.

"She is from Pakistan and they did not have any resources. When they contacted, Dr Bala was generous enough to ask them to come here, because they did not have any money. He is the one who actually raised the money. Aishwarya Trust has funded her transplant. At the same time, the money allotted was not enough so we asked some of our patients. They were generous enough to donate money. She is fine, and doing well. Her case was a severe one, not many such cases undergo a heart transplant," he added.

Expressing her gratitude, Ayesha, thanked the Indian government and her doctors, expressing her desire to return to India in the future.

"I'm very happy that I got the transplant, I thank the Indian government. I'll definitely come back to India one day again. I thank the doctors also for the treatment," ANI quoted Ayesha as saying.

Ayesha's mother, Sanober, also shared her emotional journey, recounting the challenges they faced and the lifeline extended by Dr. Balakrishnan and the medical team in Chennai. She expressed her joy at her daughter's successful transplant in India.

"I was financially unstable, but doctors gave me confidence and they asked me to make arrangements for travelling to India. I came to India without money, and Dr. Balakrishnan only helped me in all the ways. I'm very happy about the transplant, I'm also happy that an Indian heart is beating inside a Pakistani girl. I thought it was never possible but it has happened," said Ayesh's mother.