A Surgeons are all heart

After years of working hard outside the homeland, two Indian surgeons in Australia believe its time they gave something back to their country. Dr Himanshu Desai, a cardiothoracic surgeon at the Westmead Hospital in Sydney and his wife, Dr Sadhana Desai, an anaesthetist, want to ‘reach out’ to the poor in India through their new project – The Outreach Heart Care Project. This project aspires to help poor people in Jalgaon, Maharashtra undergo cardiac surgeries for free and give them a fresh lease of life. A team of 20 professionals, including surgeons, anaesthetists, perfusionists and theatre specialists from Australia will fly to India at their own cost in November, to perform the first batch of surgeries.

“Surgeons in my department at Westmead Hospital are heavily involved in Project Open Heart Surgery run by The Sydney Adventist Hospital. A team of surgeons, nurses and other allied health workers visit pacific Island nations like Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa and Tonga, Papua Guinea and far away countries like Rwanda once or twice a year,” reveals an enthusiastic Dr Desai.

“Last year, I was part of a team of surgeons who went to Fiji to perform free surgeries. I asked myself, if I can perform such operations in other countries, why can’t I do the same for my own country?” says Dr Desai, adding, “This is what inspired me to start a similar project in India.”

A cardiothoracic surgeon practicing at Westmead Hospital for 5 years, Dr Desai is from Gujarat. He specialised in cardiac surgery at AIIMS, New Delhi and has worked overseas extensively. After working in New Zealand for ten years, followed by a stint in the USA for two years, he moved back to India to work as a cardiac surgeon in Escorts Heart Institute in New Delhi, finally moving to Sydney.

According to Dr Desai, Jalgaon would be the ideal place as it is a city populated with over 400,000 people and yet there are no facilities for open heart surgeries in any public hospital in the city. Patients are often referred for surgeries to Mumbai, Pune, Nasik or Aurangabad.

The Westmead Hospital has donated two cardiopulmonary bypass machines to the Maharshi Kanva Ashram in Jalgaon, which is also part of the project. “The hospital was giving away the two machines and I requested them to donate it for our project. Prof. Peter Kleinberg, Director of Anaesthetic Department of Westmead Hospital donated the machines. I had them sent to the ashram in Jalgaon. This provided the initial stimulus for this project,” says Dr Desai.

The Indo-American Heart Institute in Jalgaon will provide its facilities at cost for Dr Desai and his team, to perform heart surgeries. The team will be in India from November 17 to November 22 and hopes to plan another trip soon next year.

Dr Desai who was in India earlier this year, has formed a committee comprising of local physicians, lawyers, hospital employees and Kanva Ashram trustees to man the project in his absence. Local physicians will help prepare a list of patients, who will be operated on in November, based on their priority for surgery.

“The Kanva Ashram, is based in a village near Jalgaon. The trustees of the Ashram are devoted to performing services free, spending their own time and money for the humanitarian purpose. During my visit early this year, I met up with some of the local doctors and floated the idea. The response was very encouraging from all involved – the trustees of Ashram, local physicians and the owner of the Indo American hospital. All have pledged their support and time to make this endeavour successful,” he says.

The project is hoping to attract donors to help perform operations, and also hospitals to invest in the equipment. “This is our first time, so we are testing the waters. We do not have any major financial backers. We also face bottlenecks due to infrastructure, and we can only do two open heart surgeries in a day. If the services are upgraded, we can increase the number of cases,” says Dr Desai. “However, we have to start somewhere and sell the concept to the local people if it has to be successful. By doing just 15 surgeries a year, it is hard to help a population of 400,000. But we hope that once the ball starts rolling, things will fall in place and we can perform more surgeries every year,” he adds.

Sadhana, his wife, is also managing the project by helping in co-ordination and presentations. When questioned on the choice of Jalgaon as recipient for this humanitarian initiative, she says, “Jalgaon was selected because a charity organisation took the responsibility of accepting the donated bypass machine, and also because Himanshu managed to talk to the local physicians when he found the cardiac hospital in Jalgaon. The logistics clicked well in one place, and hence Jalgaon was our choice. However, if we find general and local support in any place in India, we can continue the initiative there.”

According to the couple, a valve replacement could cost about RS 1.5 lakhs and a bypass surgery could amount to over RS 1 lakh. The medication, investigation and disposables are a separate cost. The doctors are also appealing to Indians in Sydney to come forward and donate generously for the project, as each surgery is expected to cost between AUD 2500 and AUD 3000. They are also holding a fundraising dinner on October 22 at the Nilgiri’s Restaurant at St. Leonards. The Spirit of India, Sydney, is also helping in fundraising for the project. For further details, please contact hsdesai@hotmail.com

Preeti Kannan