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Indian doctors save Pakistani student's life
At a time when tensions have flared up again between India and Pakistan, doctors in Delhi have saved the life of a young Pakistani engineering student by conducting a rare cardiac surgery.
- IANS
- Published: 23:58 August 15, 2008
New Delhi: At a time when tensions have flared up again between India and Pakistan, doctors in Delhi have saved the life of a young Pakistani engineering student by conducting a rare cardiac surgery.
A team of 11 doctors and staff at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has repaired 20-year-old Tayyab Niaz's mitral valve - the valve that controls the blood flow between the upper and lower chambers of the heart - to save his life.
Doctors said the surgery was "rare, tedious and needs more patience."
"Tayyab Niaz underwent heart treatment in Pakistan two years back but the mitral valve was ruptured during the medical procedure. Pakistani doctors referred him here and we successfully repaired the damage. Now he is fine and ready to go home," said Sujay Shad, the lead surgeon who carried out the surgery.
"We carried out detailed tests and conducted an open heart surgery over a period of 90 minutes on August 1. He was in a difficult condition and without this treatment he may have died in the near future. This is an Independence Day gift," Shad said.
Niaz, a mechanical engineering student in Multan, had developed a faster than normal heartbeat and underwent a procedure called radio frequency ablation at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Karachi, two years ago.
Stuck catheter
A catheter had got stuck inside the heart during the radio frequency ablation and as this catheter was extracted his mitral valve was severely damaged.
"Due to this damage, his heart started growing big, which means more weakness and less life span," Shad explained.
He said Niaz had two options - either surgery in Pakistan where doctors would have changed his mitral valve or travelling to India to have the valve repaired.
A change in valve would have meant lifelong medication, more expenditure and staying away from games such as cricket and football.
Shad said Niaz was a cricket enthusiast.
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