Sahyadri Hospitals opens Heart and Lung Transplant Center

Pune 10 July 2018 : Sahyadri Group of Hospitals has opened a state-of-the-art Heart and Lung Transplant Center at its Deccan Super Speciality Unit. A dedicated Heart Revival Clinic has also been introduced for management of advanced heart failure/ very poor heart function, using protocol driven & evidence based practices. The clinic offers advanced diagnostics for heart failure as well as varied treatment options covering Advanced Medical management including ECMO (extra corporeal Membrane Oxygenation), Device Therapies and Heart Transplants. The opening of the Heart Transplant Center was today announced by leading neurosurgeon and Chairman of Sahyadri Hospitals Dr Charudutt Apte, in the presence of well-known Heart Transplant Surgeon Dr Manoj Durairaj, Dr Sunil Rao, Group COO and Head of Deccan , Nagar Road and Hadapsar Units of Sahyadri Super Speciality Hospitals Dr Ketan Apte.

On this occasion, Dr Charudutt Apte said that Our goal is to seamlessly provide highest quality of patient-centered care so that many more patients can benefit from the modern and well equipped facilities, enormous talent and the multi-skilled resources within our team and interdisciplinary approach . Sahyadri Hospitals has been a pioneer in organ transplant with its well-equipped transplant centres at three units, one at Deccan, Nagar Road and Nashik each.We currently have facilities for Liver, Pancreas, Cornea & Kidney transplants. Now with the Heart Transplant Center our transplant program will intensify further to touch many lives.

He added that we want to deliver healthcare where the patient want us to be . So we haven’t restricted ourselves to particular areas. Recently we have joined hands with Cigma Hospitals to provide Quaternary Care Liver Transplant surgery at Aurangabad. Our doctors conduct liver wellness and transplant OPDs once a month . Also recently we crossed an important milestone of 500 Paediatric Cardiac Surgeries and 500 Paediatric Cardiac Interventions under the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana. This has been a result of constant screening camps by our doctors especially in the Marathwada region . With Heart Revival Clinic and Transplant facility we will carry on our endeavour with programs that positively impacts all sections of the society .

Explaining the concept of Heart Revival Clinic, Dr Manoj Durairaj, said while Congestive heart failure can plague the life of many, some may get reprieve from modern medicine, but for some unfortunate ones when no other options seems to be the possibility, they reach a point where heart transplant is the only option. The state of the art Heart Transplant Center will help give a new lease of life to many. He added that heart failure is one of the most prevalent conditions globally and many of them require advanced treatments to survive . Shockingly many succumb due to unavailability of proper treatment at the right time . To address this issue we are opening an ultra-modern Heart Revival Clinic which will have advanced diagnostics like Cardiac MRI/ Thallium Scan, Cardio-Pulmonary Exercise Testing (CPET) , Cardiac Haemodynaemic Assessment as well as well as varied treatment options covering Advanced Medical Management modalities (like ECMO- extra corporeal Membrane Oxygenation), Device Therapies & Heart Transplant Surgery services. The Heart Revival Clinic comprises of a Multidisciplinary Heart Team involving Heart Transplant Surgeon/Cardiac Anaesthetist/ Transplant Cardiologist/Paediatric Cardiologist/ Electrophysiologist/ Cardiac Surgeon/ Critical Care Specialists/Lung and Thoracic Surgeon, Trained Ward & ICU Nurses/ Coordinators/ Cardiac Rehabilitation Specialists/ Cardiac Nutritionist & Fluid Management Specialists.

Commenting on this new development, Dr Ketan Apte said that with a varied and wide ranging experience in handling heart failure patients, we continue to push boundaries and create new possibilities and hope for our patients . The key to the our transplant program’s success so far has been our highly skilled transplant team that includes surgeons, nurses, social workers, and many other professionals along with the modern equipment and entire range of facilities . With All About Possibilities as our mission , our team has excelled in treating many complex cases and made patient recoveries as quick as possible. I am confident that the highly skilled team will likewise excel in our new endeavour too and take patient care to greater heights.

He added that initially, Heart Revival Clinic will be available at Sahyadri Hospitals-Deccan Gymkhana, Nagar Road & Hadapsar, while our aim is to make it available at Nashik and Karad as well. One of the main issues faced by patients waiting for transplants is finance apart from emotional support that is required . While we have made it a point to address this problem with the one of the most cost effective rates , we will guide their families to get funds . Our effort will be to stand with them when they need us the most.

Dr Ketan Apte also introduced the entire team of Heart Revival Clinic led by Heart Transplant Surgeon Dr.Manoj Durairaj; Heart Transplant Anaesthetist Dr. Shantanu Shastri; Transplant Cardiologists Dr.Manoj Bhise, Dr. Abhijeet Palshikar, Dr. Priya Palimkar, Dr. Jagjit Deshmukh, Dr. Milind Gadkari;Paediatric Cardiologist Dr. Pankaj Sugaonkar, Pulmonologist Dr. Ajit Kulkarni; Lung and Thoracic Surgeon Dr.Sanjay Kolte, Critical Care Specialists Dr. Girish Date, Dr. Atul Joshi, Dr. Amol Bansode,Dr. Pradep D’ Costa, Dr. Kavita Krishna; Cardiac Rehabilitation Specialist Team led by Dr. Veena Sane & Cardiac Nutritionists Ms. Medha Patwardhan & Ms. Malvika Karkare and Medical Social Worker Ms. Sharmila Padhye

Sahyadri’s Heart Revival Clinic has organised Free Heart Screening camp between 15th and 30th July at Sahyadri Super Specialty Hospital Deccan. Patients with end-stage Heart Failure despite ongoing medical and surgical treatment options, or patients with heart echocardiogram showing poor heart function and having symptoms like breathlessness, generalised swelling of body, especially feet, should visit this Camp. A multidisciplinary team involving Transplant Cardiologist & Transplant Surgeon would offer free consultation. Camp would also offer special discount on further P