The Prime Minister's own cardiologist surgeon had operated a seriously unwell patient from Ludhiana and saved him from a heart attack after he had implanted 10 grafts to by pass the blockages in his arteries of the heart. The condition of Pawan Aggarwal, 55, was gravely bad with 10 blocked arteries which were operated gifting him a new life all over again.

Dr Ramakant Panda, heart surgeon, had worked on the patient at Asian Heart Institute in Mumbai last week in an eight hour exhaustive surgery. This is said to be a path breaking milestone in the field of heart surgeries as never before had ten grafts been created for rescuing a patient successfully.

In the surgery Panda along with his team had extracted a healthy artery, 18 cm long, from the mammary arteries of the chest and had divided it to be used as ten grafts that would be connected to the clogged coronary artery. This creates a new path for oxygen-rich blood to flow to the muscles of the heart. Multiple bypasses have been common in the past but this was a groundbreaking achievement.

Dr Panda had mentioned that this was the first time he had used more than eight grafts on a single patient as the condition of the patient was very bad. He said, "I have done a maximum of eight grafts on a single patient in my entire career. This was the first time that 10 grafts were created. Most patients require just three grafts. But this patient was in seriously bad condition."

He added that there were more than three major arteries that were clogged in the heart along with the smaller branches. They had to leave a blocked artery as it was, as it was clogged beyond repair. “We, therefore, additionally conducted an arterial cleansing procedure (endartectomy) to clean up the blockage” he said.

(AW- Anil)