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Beating Heart Surgery In India: Munne Lal Sharma from Sultanpur had an iron rod piercing through his chest. In the same critical condition, he drove himself to the hospital using an e-rickshaw. Doctors at KGMU, Lucknow, performed rare surgery on his beating heart, saving Sharma's life.

Beating Heart Surgery At KGMU: Munne Lal Sharma (54) from Sultanpur earns his living by driving an e-rickshaw. On March 27th, he was cleaning the roof of a toilet when it suddenly collapsed, and he fell from a height of nearly 10 feet. An iron rod on the roof pierced through his chest, causing severe injuries to his heart and lungs. Despite such a grave injury, Sharma drove his e-rickshaw himself to the district hospital, located 25 kilometers away. After initial treatment, he was referred to King George's Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow. Performing such complex heart surgery poses a significant challenge for KGMU's trauma surgery team. In such intricate heart surgeries, it is essential to halt the patient's heart and use a heart bypass machine. However, Sharma's impoverished family could not afford the bypass machine. In such dire circumstances, the doctors at KGMU decided to proceed with the surgery while his heart was still beating. According to a report by The Times of India, the rare surgery was successful, and Munne Lal Sharma's life was saved. According to doctors, such surgery may have been performed for the first time in Asia in a case like this.

Operation for a Beating Heart in Lucknow,
Sharma arrived at KGMU with a rod stuck in his chest. The trauma surgery team here faced a challenging case. Typically, in complex cases where the heart is injured, the patient's heart is stopped, and a bypass heart-lung machine is used. There was no time to shift the patient to cardiology. The patient's financial condition was also such that he could not afford a machine worth 3 lakh rupees. Doctors Vaibhav Jayaswal and Yaduvendra Dheer of KGMU's trauma surgery unit charted a new course - Beating Heart Surgery. According to Dr. Vaibhav, 'This complex surgery may have been performed for the first time in Asia in such cases. Doctors successfully operated on the patient's beating heart.
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A Small Mistake in Rod Removal Could Have Cost the Patient's Life
Dr. Dheer explained, "The rod had pierced both chambers of the heart; it was a miracle that the heart was still beating. There was a risk that if we removed the rod, there would be heavy bleeding. Oxygenated and deoxygenated blood would mix, leading to the patient's death. Therefore, we pushed the rod slightly and first closed the left chamber, then repaired the right chamber."

The surgery took a total of four hours. Doctors cut a 45 cm section of the 75 cm long rod so that they could perform an echo X-ray. Slowly removing the rod, they repaired the heart and lungs. During this time, Sharma also received seven units of blood. The surgery was successful. The patient spent the next three days on a ventilator and then nine days in the ICU.