Old age bypassed, surgery a success

Shrichand Chhabra is the oldest person in India to have undergone a bypass surgery. The success of the operation performed on the 94-year-old offers hope to elderly patients considered too high-risk to undergo an open-heart surgery. Dr ZS Meharwal, director of cardiovascular surgery at the Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, said, “Chhabra is the oldest patient in India to have undergone a bypass, and very likely the oldest in Asia. We are in the process of confirming this.”

Meharwal and his team performed the coronary artery bypass grafting (bypass surgery) on January 25.

Dr Meharwal said, “Chhabra had damaged heart muscle and had had a pacemaker implanted in 2003. His heart function was 25-30 per cent, way below the normal 50-55 per cent.”

Taken to hospital on January 19 with symptoms of acute angina (pain and burning sensation in the chest) and breathlessness, Chhabra was put on ventilator support. An intra-aortic balloon pump was implanted in his chest to help his heart pump blood.

Dr Meharwal said, “The angiogram showed that two arteries were almost completely blocked. The only way to take him off the ventilator was to do a bypass.”