A young girl from Karachi, Pakistan, got a second chance at life with a heart transplant at MGM Healthcare in Chennai, India. The new heart came from a 69-year-old brain-dead donor in Delhi.
The girl, Ayesha Rashan, is 19 years old. She had been waiting for a heart transplant for five years due to a failing heart. In 2019, Ayesha had a cardiac arrest and heart failure, prompting her first visit to India. A heart transplant was recommended by Dr. KR Balakrishnan, a senior cardiac surgeon then working at Malar Hospital in Adyar. To keep her heart going while she waited for a donor, doctors implanted a mechanical pump known as a left ventricular assist device.
After returning to Pakistan, Ayesha’s condition worsened in 2023. Her heart’s right side also began to fail, and she got an infection. Her mother, Sanober Rashan, said they couldn’t afford the surgery, but Dr. Balakrishnan encouraged them to come to India.
In September 2023, Dr. Balakrishnan’s team said that a heart transplant was the only option. On January 31, Sanober got a call from the hospital that a heart was available. The donor was an older person, which made some surgeons hesitant, but the team at MGM Healthcare decided to proceed because the donor’s heart was in good condition.
After the transplant surgery, Ayesha slowly improved. She was taken off life support a few days later. However, she had experienced severe heart failure, requiring ECMO, a type of life support that helps patients with critical heart or lung issues.
Despite challenges, Ayesha’s family was able to cover the hospital costs with the help of an NGO called Aishwarya Trust, other patients, and medical professionals. The total cost of the transplant was about 3.5 million Indian rupees. Ayesha’s family said they could not have paid for the surgery without this financial support.
Ayesha was discharged from the hospital on April 17, her health having stabilized. Now she can return to Pakistan with her family, grateful for the second chance given by the Indian heart donor and the team at MGM Healthcare.
