Dr. Ajay Kaul
Chairman & HOD
Cardiothoracic and
Vascular Surgery
BLK Heart Centre
BLK Super Speciality

“The 28 year old IAS aspirant was admitted with complaints of difficulty in performing daily routine activities. The donor was a perfect match for the recipient as their age, body built and haemo-dynamics were the same.”
Dr. Sushant Srivastava Director & Sr. Consultant Cardio Thoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS) BLK Heart Centre

The army jawans protect us and save our lives. In this heroic tale, an army jawan saved a life of a young IAS aspirant even in his death. Here's a heart-rending case of life-in-death.

Meeting an unfortunate death while on vacation in his hometown of Saharanpur, the jawan was rushed to a Delhi based hospital where he was declared brain dead. The family, keeping his courage in mind, agreed to donate his organs. On the other side was a young man suffering with an end-stage heart disease, fighting the odds and on the verge of giving up.

THE CASE
The 28-year-old recipient, Harmender was admitted to BLK Super Speciality Hospital on 5th March, 2017 with complaints of difficulty in performing routine daily activities described as heart failure stage D. Post investigations, it was diagnosed that he had severe left ventricular dysfunction, both of his valves aortic and mitral were incompetent and leaking. His heart was highly dilated with very poor pumping and the only option for survival was a Heart Transplant.

THE PROCEDURE
The heart (of the deceased army man) was transported from a city based hospital to BLK Super Speciality Hospital in a record 8 minutes after Delhi Traffic Police yet again created a green corridor for the same. The family of the deceased had given consent for a cadaver donation after the man was declared brain dead on arrival in the hospital. Timely information from NOTTO helped save the young man in first attempt after he applied for Heart Transplant.






The 4 hour long surgery started at around 2.35 am and lasted till 6.30 am. Dr. Ajay Kaul supported by his team - Dr. Sushant Srivastava in CTVS, Dr. Subhash Chandra and Dr. Neeraj Bhalla, Dr. Dheeraj Gandotra, in Cardiology, Dr. Jasbir Khanuja, Dr. Sameer Saurabh Arora, Dr. Gagan Pal Singh in Cardiac Anaesthesia, Kanwalpreet Kaur, Transplant Coordinator and Gaurav Sharma, Manager- BLK Heart Centre, helped perform the mammoth Heart Transplant surgery successfully.

THE RESULT
With a tiger-heart pumping inside him, Harmender has now recovered well and hopes to fulfill his dream of becoming a civil servant. He aspires to accomplish a lot of things in the years to come. However, one of the most important task for him at the moment is to spend quality-time with his 18-month-old son.