Being a cardiothoracic surgeon
when
heart stops beating
life ends you all agree
but just imagine i stop a beating heart
remove that heart from the body pack it
in
ice box it to
or transfer it from another
implant it in another body
and heart starts beating a new life
starts
isn’t it amazing already it’s an
out of world experience but let me tell
you that is
what is the amazing story about organ
transplantation and organ donation
my dear friends i am dr dhiren shah
my friends call me a romantic surgeon
because i have touched lot of hearts
[Laughter]
my colleagues tell me you are a
devotional guru or you are
you are an inspirational guru because
you change hearts
i do everything but i am none of them
i am basically a cardiac surgeon i am a
heart transplant surgeon working in
endeavor
my journey of cardiac surgeon of heart
citizens started
the day when i was born my father said
[Music]
and probably i don’t know that might
have seeded something
in my subconscious mind and somehow
i tried i was hating mathematics
in my school days so i was left with no
other choice
but to be a doctor
as a child i was a very introverted
introverted child
imaginative child sitting in a corner
from a small town gandhi
in a pre-google era
so and unfortunately in our families
we had lot of cardiac patients heart
patients in our family
so they used to get treatment they used
to get
surgeries done and they used to talk
about heart surgeries they used to talk
about the heart surgeons
and whenever they used to talk about
heart diseases they used to glorify like
anything
here i am there standing in front of you
being a cardiac surgeon with 20 years of
practice behind me
after performing thousands of surgeries
i have performed now more than twenty to
thirteen thousand open heart surgeries
then almost complex complex surgeries
also
establish lot of new things one day with
that mindset
i was doing my opd’s a young child a
young gentleman 21 years old
came in my opinion he was real
breathless
he was eliminated all over the body
unable to do his routine activities also
that is what he stole is
on his stream he’s unable to do even
he’s unable to even sleep also
for more than two hours because once he
sleeps down he gets breathless and he
has to sit down
his parents touched my feet and said
sir we have learned
we have heard lot of about you
please save my child he is the only
child
you are my god you are our god please
save with 15 years of practice
and work with the best infrastructure
that i was working around
with the best team of doctors around
with me in my team
i was unable to save that child
why because the best bet for that child
was
to have a heart transplantation and
unfortunately
the heart transplantation program was
not available
in gujarat in that exam what i’m talking
about is in 2014
and hardly there were any centers
available in which in india also two or
three centers were available in india
who were doing heart transplantation at
that point of time
so i think so that was a triggering
point that was a tipping point for me
i need to do something and i have always
always realized
every people every event that comes in
front of you
is always with some purpose it is always
up to you
how you choose it and how we do it with
that
so i decided let us take this challenge
of establishing a heart transplantation
program
in the state of gujarat
heart transplantation let me tell you is
not just surgery
everybody feel it’s a surgery but it is
not surgery it is basically whole
process
it is i would compare it with a startup
when you are starting some program or
any
company you need to do everything so for
heart transplantation you need to
do research you need to do reading you
need to do paperwork you need to
get licensing you need to get this
machinery established you need to have
an infrastructure developed
you need to have a pool of good
intellectual doctors together
so that you can get the best results out
of that
and in spite of my busy practice in 2014
i took time out and with my colleagues
dr milan chuck and dr chintan shade
we went to us for months period
just to observe how these people are
doing our transplantation in us
what is their protocol what is their
flawless system
doing there and we try to get all that
thing over here in andhravad
established that whole system in india
at our own hospital and then we were
waiting
for an organ that is on sunday evening i
was
6 30 around i was sitting with my friend
chatting
i got a call from another
ngos called up there is a probable brain
definition
there in palmer and their parents have
agreed upon
for an organ donation that young man was
just 32 year old asif junior
who had a road traffic accident had a
severe brain injury
and irrecoverable brain damage so he was
declared basically brain dead
but their family agreed upon that okay
we want to
donate the organ and fortunately
at that particular time at my own
hospital
one patient was already admitted mr
arjun bhai from jannah
who had been pumping heart pumping of
just 15 percent
he was on life support system for almost
15-20 days
he was on ventilator for 15 days
we had given him almost 150 shocks
just to keep his rhythm in a heartbeat
in a rhythmic way
we were trying very hard so that we can
make him survive
and his only best form of treatment
would have been
a transplantation so when i got in this
call
i consulted the family members of arjun
bhai
there is an opportunity are you ready
for heart transplantation
and by god’s grace and the full faith in
us
they agreed upon yes immediately i
gathered by me
6 30 i got a call and by 11 o’clock i
had left
with my retriaval team to palm nagar
to retrieve the organ two o’clock i
reached at baunagan
examined the donor prepared the things
side by side let me tell you whenever
there is a call for organ donation
there is a war room like situation
because
lot of things need to be coordinated at
similar point of time
because in that stipulated time of
almost i would say
eight or ten hours the whole process of
organ donation and transplantation is
completed
so within that period you have to
coordinate lot of things
so we reached there we took the patient
in operation heater
we operated retrieve the heart
so we reached here and then
implanted the heart in argentine
and after transplanting the heart
started beating
and then music that
feeling of creation of life or getting
that dead life
is unimaginable a sense of creation of
life
is really emotional and very contagious
also
and let me tell you even after doing 13
heart transplantations in last four
years
i get the same feeling
13 heart transplant in just four years
it’s a small number it should be a big
number
let me show you very important data
which may highlight certain things
heart transplantation was performed 50
years back in 1967
and since then in us almost almost one
like 25 000 heart transplantations have
been performed
whereas in india last year in february
2020 we
we completed one thousand mark a huge
gap is it that we like
the infrastructure is it that we like
the intellectual
power is it that we had no
good doctors with us or was it something
else
and then another very important fact i
would like to share with you
in 2019 just last year
india became number two in
transplantation program
in world after us
eight thousand kidney transplants
two 2000 liver transplants and 240
heart transplant in one calendar year
that is last year it is a proud moment
for everybody of us
but when i dig deep into this data
then you realize that there is a
shocking things which are coming out
of all this transplantation that were
performed in india
90 to 95 of the transplantation done
whereby live donation a mother has given
liver or kidney to somebody a brother
has given
a father has given or somebody has given
kidney for their near and dear ones
so that they can live normally
whereas
if you look at these figures it is of
absolutely reverse in the western and
developed countries
and we always feel why should
a family member or near and dear one
should park their organ
give to their near and dear ones so that
they can live but at the same time
they will be living with a compromised
life
if this can be this can be sorted out by
just simple
organ donation and what i’m talking
about
is the categorying organ donation and
not the live organ donation
once the person is brain dead once the
person is dead
then and then it is the matter of
donating an
organ another very important thing is
how to increase this transplantation in
india
and it’s very simple formula or simple
theory or as simple as
a b c a
stands for awareness and acceptance
b stands for behavioral changes that we
need to bring around
in the society and see is compassion
and commitment if this
three things or four things are
inculcated in our culture
then we can do a great change in this
organ donation awareness
how can we create an awareness very
basic and fundamental question
everybody should be knowing about what
is organ donation
once they understand what is organ
donation then you
discuss it with your family member
discuss it with your friends
your colleagues your office partners
the more the discussion is there the
better the spread would be
and i am pretty sure if this is done
then it can spread
like a wild fire across india
with this change in the perception about
organ donation
we can bring out sea change in what we
want in india
let me share you a very good example it
is a real story
about the acceptance and awareness what
it can
create a change a female got pregnant
on investigation she found out that the
baby has
no brain development we call it as an
entrepreneur
and what does that mean once the child
is born
the child is not going to survive for
more than few hours
but in spite of that knowledge that
female continued with the pregnancy
with the soul intention only soul
intention
and she knew that my child will not be
living
till brain is not developed but rest of
the organs are normal
so once he when the child is born let
him be organ donor
and let him give life to lot of other
small kids
see this is the maturity of level of
commitment
or i would say awareness and acceptance
which is required in india
and if you can bring that awareness then
definitely
it is going to be a magical moment for
all india
in indian culture the the
importance of dhan has already been
intelligent
in our own system and own
[Music]
teaching also we have a lot of
importance of
say kanyadan or andan or vinyandan
even the madhdan is also very important
so if we know the importance of dhan
then i would say is the epitome of all
this
and i would request okay the way we
teach our small children
how to talk and how to walk teach them
about organ donation also that can
make that can be incorporated or that
can be
culminated into an behavioral changes in
the new generation
to come simple
life is just about caring and sharing
caring and sharing for others for
compassion you don’t need power
for compassion you don’t need the money
what you need is just the commitment for
the caring of other fellow human beings
if that is there then definitely you can
do
what you want and you can make the life
better for the other person also
or the society or the country
let this body be used for others
i am a cardiac surgeon and i have seen
life and death very closely
let me tell you at one point of time
patient is alive
and within five minutes the patient is
dead
and i know the very fine line between
the mortality and the survival
and the best example is my i would again
uh illustrate my
first heart transplantation arjun bhai
who was on the death bed if he had not
received
and heard from massive junior probably
he would not have seen 2017 also
in future you may also require an organ
for your own survival
so think about it and as such also
donating is our
human nature we donate books we donate
food we donate
clothes we donate everything and we all
have experience that joy and
satisfaction whenever we help others or
we donate to others
so let us donate organs also and let me
tell you
if we don’t donate organs then we are
going to
face the priceless organs
which the nature has created and
unfortunately
the modern science and technology has
not been able to create that thing
so if you waste that organ that organ is
either going to
get burned or buried
it’s a big loss for everybody so i
urge you all to pledge for organ
donation
because by donating organ you save life
you give life and that is also after
your death
and you are maintaining your legacy this
is like
being god i urge you all
you also be all god and donate organs
thank you