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