65year-old American gets a new heart in India
CHENNAI: Doctors in the US had given Ronald Lemmer, 65, only a year to live and had scoffed at his idea of going to India for a heart transplant. They told him he would return in a coffin. Today, after a successful heart transplant at Apollo Hospitals in Chennai, Lemmer is smiling. So is India's medical fraternity. For, till the 1980's it was the Indians who went to the US for heart surgeries and Americans ever flying down for treatment was inconceivable.
Lemmer was transplanted with the heart of a 36-year-old accident victim in an eight-hour surgery on July 21. On Thursday, Apollo Hospitals presented him to the media. Lemmer will return to Minneapolis on August 10. Dr Paul Ramesh, one of the cardiothoracic surgeons who operated on Lemmer, said he is the oldest person to receive a new heart in India.
His wife Shelly, visibly emotional, said, "When we left for India the doctors in the US told us that he would only come back in a coffin. My husband is a walking miracle. He looks at least 15 years younger. Earlier his heart was functioning at 20% of its capacity. Now it has gone up to 60%."
read full @
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/65-year-old-American-get...
I'll take a pig's heart, probably better than an indian one after all those beedies...
Exiled, I think a Pig's heart will suit you as well. Indian heart will make you racist!
Thank God for Indian hearts, I hope one is warmed up when I need one...
Its easier said than done XXX. Govt. does have a policy regarding this but it is based upon education and carrots but ultimately it leaves it to the people's free will, unlike China where they have One Child Policy and you go to jail if you dont follow it.
India is moving forward in a bid to become a "medical centre" for the West. The idea is to provide quality healthcare at lower costs. However, this market is squarely for the foreign market. The medical facilities for the ordinary citizen still need improving.
to a number that you can adequately provide for? Especially if birth control is cheap and readily available...
ex.ex.ex it's not easy to provide adequate medical facilities to more than 1 billion people.
So India will never be a medically advanced nation. But the better facilities are also big. They cater to more people than most European nations combined!
Maybe that is not an accurate impression then.
The best hear hospital in India is Bangalore's Narayana Hrudayalaya,proud to be a bangalorean
xxxpat: I dont think the country as such is 'so medically advanced' and I dont know what makes you think so. True there are pockets where you get very good healthcare facilities but on an average its far from advanced.
Good.. now an indian heart beats in an american body.
except skin and corneas. everything else requires a constant supply of blood, electrical stimulation from brainwaves, and oxygen.
Maybe organ donation is not common there, but the norm is to have a much greater demand than supply. That's why I find the notion of individual hospitals procuring organs for private clients, and not having any regulating body to make sure that organs are not sold and are distributed fairly, to be a very odd situation for a country so medically advanced.
ES:If you see the number of heart transplants done on Indians per 1000 of population or so, it would be much lesser than of most western nations (dont have the exact stats). reasons being
1. A lot of them still dont have the access to a doc/specialist who would recommend heart transplants.
2. Lifestyle, as in low calorific intake and less sedentery habits
3. Preference towards other equally effective modes of alternatives like Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Yoga etc that have been more common for centuries.
As for your reasoning as to why there could be so many of them, I find your statement quite offensive. That an instance of media glorification of a mundane issue can only be seen as an opportunity for generalisation of an entire people, in your eyes, should tell you something about yourself. That you are looking for half a chance to pass judgements on someone or the other. Judegements that serve no other purpose than give you a feeling of smug satisfaction of having been able to look down on something.
May be its my sense of humor on the summer vacation or maybe its just plain you.
xxxpat: Isnt there an option to store it? But I doubt whether that situation would arise often.
Liver transplant...
I wasn't looking down on Indian doctors (many of the NHS staff are of Indian origin) but rather trying to understand why he went to India for the operation in the first place, when america has an excellent cardiac record.
So what happens when a private hospital doesn't have someone waiting for an organ they have access to? would they just not harvest it? Or would they actually be willing to match it with someone in need?
I didn't realise the reason Indians existed was an organ bank for the rest of the world... well you live and learn... maybe that is why there are so many of them....
this is not the first of its kind...have read several such cases where westerners have visited india to undergo critical surgeries and have returned happily..
charges are reasonable if you see the medical expenses in america for such surgeries. there have been cases where paki children have also come to india for heart transplants.
its not surprising that so many surgeons in america are of indian origin.
In Apollo money talks.
That's odd for such a large well developed medical system. But that would explain it then. No one else waiting at the hospital so the heart goes to him. Makes sense. But would that same heart be thrown away if he wasn't there, rather than send it to another hospital for another patient?
The money does come into it.. For a start , he becomes the oldest ever heart transplant patient. Secondly, according to the surgeon who carried out the operation, this was a complicated operation... and ordinary operations cost anything between Rs.800,000 to Rs.1 million. Which is a lot of money for anyone... especially me ..
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health1/an-american-has-successful-heart-transplant-in-india_100407777.html
'Narayana Hrudayalaya' best Hospital in India for Heart. "best Doctors"
'Narayana Hrudayalaya' best Hospital in India for Heart. "best Doctors"
ex.ex.expat 1 billion people are not waiting for heart transplant in India. They only matched with the patients in the waiting list at Apollo Chennai which again is not the longest waiting, list as there are various other hospitals for heart surgeries and some are more advanced than Apollo.
Britex, wish the old man all the best!
well we have many hospitals doing the surgery and not one list for the whole country.
if all hospitals r charitable institutions ....
well we have many hospitals doing the surgery and not one list for the whole country.
if all hospitals r charitable institutions ....
was just looking at the issue of his age and how he got a heart in India.
And who are "you people" mate?
ex.ex.ex, you people don't have the heart to appreciate anything.
Knows only to criticize anything.
What else you could do?
that there was no suitable Indian candidate for it. Out of a population of over 1 billion people???????? Somebody is making money.
money do play a part (to some extent)
"After coming to Chennai in May this year, it was an excruciating wait of three months for the couple before Lemmer found a suitable donor. "He was very lucky as the donor's heart did not match with any Indians on the waiting list and hence we selected him," said Dr Prathap C Reddy, chairman of Apollo Hospitals. "
a country as large as India with so many people on the registry will not have ANYONE matching an Indian's heart (which has to be typed and crossmatched for compatibility) except for this one american chap who miraculously gets it?!
Sounds like a cover up to me, but does make it the fairytale that media often looks for.
Darly, first read the article in the attached thread.
He got the priority because the donor's heart did not match with any Indians on the waiting list.
Thanks for the info.. Appreciate it ..
ex.ex pls. read the link first :)
Britex if you have faith in the Indian Medical system you could try this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narayana_Hrudayalaya
They have a department for nephrology.
You can e-mail them, they are very proffesional and will give you prompt & honest counsel online. As far as I know they don't give false hopes only for the sake of business.
This is their direct webpage:
http://www.narayanahospitals.com/
Now the gentleman will start singing going around the trees like in bollywood movies or may be Item song.
India is promoting health tourism in big way, first get healthy & tour around. congrats Ronald have great life, and tell the west not to come with negative propoganda of poverty and many other sarcastic news items. The third world countries are just born in this century. We shall excel.
I suppose he was given priority because he had the money!
Britexpat, get your dad on a list in India. He will have a significantly improved chance of getting the organ. Wockhardt group of hospitals specialise in nephrology. If he has the zeal to live longer and the will to fight it out, he deserves this chance. God bless and good luck!
Great news..Yes the world is changing!
Exactly Brit, age is considered as an important criteria for organ transplant as there is always a long list of patient waiting for suitable donor.
It makes sense to prioritise young ones for the procedure as they are expected to make proper use of it for a productive life. But it also feels wrong at the same time to deny older ones a chance to live a bit longer.
Anyways, all the best for the one who got it. Wishing him a healthy life onwards.
because he is 65. So my question, how do they prioritize organs for transplantation in India? Wonder if he got an organ cause he could pay?
But the best Heart Research institute in india is 'Narayana Hrudayalaya' at Bangalore. It is the Best place in Asia for treatment of the Heart, and one of the best in the world. It caters to patients from over 70 countries including the middle east.
BTW what I have heard in the past that this Apollo has a penchant for fleecing money from patients and not providing the best quality.
My father is on the list for a kidney transplant. However because of his age (over 70), he has unofficially been told that he has no chance because they give priority to younger patients..
But the best heart institute in India is 'Narayana Hrudayalaya' at Bangalore. It is the finest Heart treatment facility in Asia. And one of the Best in the world. Apollo has a penchant for fleecing money, and not known for the best quality.
Brit, I thought so as well. Age above 65year usually is an exclusion criteria for such transplants but now they permit for upto 70years.
Mash'Allah.
petvet - this is not the first case but an American that too 68 year old.
usually even Indians look to the west for such operations, lets take the reverse as a positive sign
you visit US or Europe the most successful doctors are Indian and now in India as the cost of surgery is comparably less medical tourism is on - this is not the first case .lot of people from many countries are being operated there
Great stuff.. Let's hope he lives a long life now..
Perhaps the Doctors in the USA felt that he was not a priority because of his age..
Jai ho...
Thats what we were waiting for. Congratulations to the Doctors who made their nation proud.