Under the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat health plan, the first free open-heart surgery was successfully performed in Tripura’s Agartala Government Medical College and GB Pant Hospital on Statehood Day on Friday (January 21).
Madhabi Rani Das, 46, of Udaipur underwent open-heart surgery on January 21 at GBP hospital, according to reports. The whole operation was done free of cost as the patient is a beneficiary of the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
The medical college’s Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Surgery and Interventional Radiology (CTVS and IR) facilities were installed two years ago, but there was no surgeon or competent surgery team, as said by Dr Sanjib Debbarma, Medical Superintendent of Agartala Govt Medical College (AGMC) and GBP Hospital.
Dr Kanak Narayan Bhattacharjee, Consultant of the Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS) department at the GB Pant Hospital, stated to ANI, “This is the first time such a surgery has been performed under my observation. In this complicated surgery, all of the technicians, anesthesiologists, and staff nurses performed a critical role.”
Manjushri Roy, the Principal of Agartala Medical College, addressed the reporters, “We are pleased to inform you that a complex operation like open-heart surgery was successfully performed at the GBP hospital in Agartala. This would allow people from all over the state to receive tertiary care right at their doorstep.”
When asked if more of these surgeries will be carried out in the future, Roy remarked, “These operations are extremely critical and need much planning on the part of both the patients and the surgeons. We can’t conduct two surgeries a day due to limited resources, but this is a continuous process.”
The successful operation took 5 gruelling hours. The patient is currently in a stable state. Dr Kanak Narayan Bhattacharjee, consultant and In-charge, CTVS & IR department, Dr Anindya Sundar Trivedi, and Dr Surjit Pal headed a team of 15 specialists that performed the operation.