Having had two bypass surgeries already, 65-year-old Uma Charan Patra did not imagine that he would need yet another bypass surgery to keep his heart beating.
Several doctors that the Patras consulted said that the surgery was too risky. And even when they found a willing surgeon, it took the family from Orissa four months to decide to go ahead with the surgery.
But after undergoing a ‘re-redo bypass surgery’ or a third-time bypass surgery on February 10, Patra was discharged from Asian Heart Hospital on Friday. In four weeks, the retired general manager from SAIL, will even be able to resume work as the director of an engineering college in Rourkela, Orissa.
Patra underwent his first bypass surgery in 1988 and a re-do in 2009. “But he started complaining of heaviness in the chest in September 2009. We consulted doctors, but never thought that he might have another arterial blockage,” said Patra’s son Shubransu, an IT professional and Chembur resident.
But an angiography revealed that all the grafts from his previous surgeries had 90% blockage. “With his history of ischaemic heart disease, his heart was a constantly ticking time bomb. We were told to try cardiac rehabilitation, but surgery was the only option that could save his life,” said Shubranshu.
“A re-redo bypass surgery is an extremely risky surgery,” said Dr Ramakanta Panda, cardio thoracic surgeon, Asian Heart Institute. “Complicating matters further, the patient was already in bad shape.”
Bypass surgery, the first time, is an invasive and major surgical procedure. Re-do bypass is complicated as it is difficult for the surgeon to reach the heart — this is because the heart sticks to the breast bone, which in turn sticks to the lungs and other vital organs.
A re-redo bypass surgery is simply so complicated that not many surgeons take the risk of performing it. “Out of the 1,500 heart ailment cases we see every year, I perform about four re-redo bypass surgeries,” said Dr Panda, who is one of the few surgeons who do it.
