World Heart Day (Sept 29)Jaipur: Four years after a donor heart saved her life, Dholi Devi of Behror is not just surviving — she has become a grandmother and is living with her family, sustained by regular medication and follow-up care.Her heart transplant was performed at SMS Hospital in Jaipur on June 24, 2022. She is now the longest-surviving heart transplant recipient at the hospital.Dholi Devi, a resident of Behror, recently became a grandmother. “I am leading a happy life with my family and taking proper medication,” Devi told TOI over phone.Her recovery is one of the most visible examples of what cadaveric organ donation can mean for patients with end-stage heart disease. On World Heart Day, Rajasthan’s transplant record shows how donor families have helped turn sudden loss into second chances for critically ill patients.Since Feb 2015, Rajasthan has recorded 86 cadaveric organ donations. Of these, 35 hearts were harvested for transplantation. While 18 were transplanted within the state, 17 were transported to other states for patients in urgent need.Health department records say 18 heart transplants were performed in Rajasthan, 10 of which were conducted at SMS Hospital. Three such recipients continue to thrive.Doctors said Devi was under treatment at SMS Hospital for years before the transplant became necessary.“She was under treatment at SMS Hospital since 2019 and required frequent hospitalisation for respiratory distress. Diagnostic tests revealed cardiomyopathy. She was admitted multiple times and advised to undergo a heart transplant,” said Dr Ram Gopal Yadav, professor of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery at SMS Hospital.Her second chance came after the family of a 36-year-old man from Maharashtra consented to donate his organs following his death in a road accident.SMS Hospital performed its first heart transplant on Jan 16, 2020. The surgery was successful, but the patient died during the Covid pandemic.Rajasthan’s longest-surviving heart transplant, meanwhile, recipient remains Suraj Bhan, a farmer from Hanumangarh, who underwent a transplant in 2015 at Jaipur’s Mahatma Gandhi Hospital.
