Cure Beyond Borders: Ayesha Now Breathes With Indian Heart (image-X)After waiting for five years with an ailing heart, 19-year-old Ayesha Rashan from Pakistan’s Karachi at last has found the cure beyond borders. Doctors from Chennai-based MGM Healthcare gave the heart of a 69-year-old brain-dead patient on January 31.
Ayesha after getting her longed life back said to TOI, “I can breathe easy now”. “I am planning to complete my schooling in Karachi. I want to become a fashion designer,” she added.
She first came to India in 2019 when suffered from a cardiac arrest and went into heart failure. A senior cardiac surgeon who was at the hospital at that time suggested a heart transplant. Ayesha was waitlisted on the state organ registry. With the temporary left ventricular assist device that would keep her alive, Ayesha flew back home. The device is a surgically implanted mechanical pump that helps the left ventricular pump blood.
But unfortunately, in 2023, the right side of her heart also failed. Making the situation worse, she also had an infection.
“It was terrible to see my daughter suffer like that. We reached out to the surgeon. We told him we couldn’t afford surgery, but he asked us to come to India,” said her mother, Sanober Rashan.
In September 2023, Dr Balakrishan’s team said to her parents that the only option left was to get a heart transplant. After several days of waiting, the hospital called them on January 31.
“A heart is allotted to foreigners only when there is no prospective recipient in the entire country. Since this patient’s heart was that of a 69-year-old, many surgeons hesitated,” said Dr K G Suresh Rao, co-director at the hospital’s Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support.
But Ayesha’s parent decided to take the risk as the donor’s heart was in good condition and it was the only chance for Ayesha.
The surgery was successful and she was removed from life support a few days later. The heart plant that cost up to Rs 35 lakh was met with the help of NGO Aishwarya Trust, former patients and doctors. Ayesha was discharged from the hospital on April 17.