By
Daniel Thimmayya | ENS - CHENNAI
24th May 2013 08:08 AM
Md Zubair Ashmi, who underwent a transplant at Malar Hospital, with surgeon Dr K R Balakrishnan on Thursday | R Satish Babu
The heart of a 36-year-old accident victim from Chennai now beats in
the chest of a Pakistani, who narrowly escaped the claws of death. In a
rare occurrence, the Pakistani managed to fly across, get admitted to a
hospital in Chennai and receive a donor heart a day or two before
doctors at Fortis Malar Hospital would have given up on his ailing body.
Moulana Mohammed Zubair Ashmi (41), a teacher at a madrassa in the small town of Tehsil Kharian (Gujarat district of Pakistan), had a heart that was pumping blood with only 10 per cent efficiency — well below the average 60 per cent required. In addition, his kidneys were shutting down and his urine output was minimal, apart from which his liver was ravaged by Hepatitis C.
“I don’t think I would have made it, really,” admits the thin, bearded man candidly, looking back on his near-death experience.
“Inshallah, I am here now,” he adds in Urdu-tinted Hindi. Though his doctors in Lahore agreed they could do little for him surgically, they made the long-distance call to Dr K R Balakrishnan, in Chennai, that saved his life.A long process ensued to get Zubair to Chennai, after which several medical obstacles were overcome to give him his new heart.
Zubair is recovering remarkably fast. Expected to return to Pakistan in a month, he says he feels just as much at home here in Chennai. “There is no difference between India and Pakistan... They love me a lot more here, since I am Pakistani,” he says.
Moulana Mohammed Zubair Ashmi (41), a teacher at a madrassa in the small town of Tehsil Kharian (Gujarat district of Pakistan), had a heart that was pumping blood with only 10 per cent efficiency — well below the average 60 per cent required. In addition, his kidneys were shutting down and his urine output was minimal, apart from which his liver was ravaged by Hepatitis C.
“I don’t think I would have made it, really,” admits the thin, bearded man candidly, looking back on his near-death experience.
“Inshallah, I am here now,” he adds in Urdu-tinted Hindi. Though his doctors in Lahore agreed they could do little for him surgically, they made the long-distance call to Dr K R Balakrishnan, in Chennai, that saved his life.A long process ensued to get Zubair to Chennai, after which several medical obstacles were overcome to give him his new heart.
Zubair is recovering remarkably fast. Expected to return to Pakistan in a month, he says he feels just as much at home here in Chennai. “There is no difference between India and Pakistan... They love me a lot more here, since I am Pakistani,” he says.
Excerpt from: The New Indian Express
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