Arjun Singh
Ahmedabad, Gujarat [India] : Life hasn’t been the same for kalpesh since March, 2017. Few months before his birthday, a seemingly healthy young man of 23, Kalpesh, all of a sudden suffered from a massive heart failure which rendered his heart with a working capacity of only 15%.
A diamond factory worker, Kalpesh and his family were incapable of affording the humongous bills of transplant. That is when they got in touch with Dr Dhaval Naik, a well-known cardiac surgeon at CIMS Hospital Ahmedabad. It was his detailed counsel that gave the patient and his family confidence of full recovery.
The path to recovery would have been rockier if not for Donatelife foundation, who counselled the family of a young man slain in an accident to donate his organs. The Surat boy’s heart was a perfect match for Kalpesh. The team of Donatelife made its way from Surat to Ahmedabad within 80 mins for him who was admitted in CIMS Hospital ICU.
However, any success story is incomplete without hurdles and defeating those obstacles with poise. This new heart didn’t immediately adapt to the new body and wasn’t functioning. So specialist’s team put him on an artificial heart, named ECMO. This machine heart was placed in the body to perform tasks till the new heart gets adopted. Dr Dhaval Naik, Dr Dhiren Shah and their team, worked day and night relentlessly to make this operation successful. Finally, after gruelling six days, the heart and body became in-sync to his recovery. His human-made heart was removed, and thus he began his new life with a new centre on June 2, 2017.
Speaking on the success of the heart transplant, Dr Dhaval Naik said, “Kalpesh celebrated his birthday in ICU, hoping new birthday would arrive with the joy of new heart. It was sad to see a promising young man fighting for his life. We decided to pour all our strength to save him. The heart of the brain dead Surat man was our ray of hope. However, when it immediately didn’t adapt to the body, we decided to wait instead of frightening in this situation. Patient’s will power and co-doctors and staff’s efforts paid off when six days later, the new heart started beating. For a doctor, this was the best birthday gift I could have asked for!”
Its been three years since the transplant and Kalpesh is leading a happy and healthy life. He says it owes it all to be Dr Dhaval Naik, Dr Dhiren Shah and their skilled squad at CIMS Hospital Ahmedabad.
