PRINCE KUMAR
Ranchi, May 13: Rajesh Kumar Ganjhu (29) finally heaved a sigh of relief at the Cardio-Thoracic Vascular Surgery (CTVS) department of the only state-run super speciality hospital RIMS, after getting operated for aneurysm (an abnormal bulge or ballooning in the wall of a blood vessel) which is only possible in the top-notch hospitals of the country.
The CTVS department of RIMS has added a new chapter in the history of the hospital by performing first of its kind open-heart surgery which itself is very rare. The disease is very rare and it happens in 4-5 out of 1 lakh people.

The whole team of doctors of the CTVS department including HOD Dr Vineet Mahajan, Dr Rakesh Kumar Choudhary and Dr Anshul Kumar took the challenge and made the surgery successful with limited resources available at RIMS.
According to Dr Vineet Mahajan, Ganjhu had a tennis ball size bulge in the main valve of the heart which was blocking the flow of the blood.
Dr Rakesh Kumar Choudhary said that this kind of surgery is very difficult with limited resources. “However, the bulge was removed by stopping the blood from both sides, after which a graft was placed in between,” he added.
Dr Anshul Kumar said that the surgery went on for five hours, in which the heart was stopped for two hours during the surgery using the heart-lung machine.
“The patient was extubated (removal of the endotracheal tube) just after two hours of the surgery which is the final step in liberating a patient from mechanical ventilation,” he added.
Nagendra Ganjhu, the father of the patient said that they came to know about the disease 4 months earlier when he got diagnosed at a government hospital in Hazaribagh, from where he was referred to RIMS.
“All the doctors involved in the surgery saved my son’s life, that too free of cost for which private hospital was charging nearly Rs 10 lakh,” he added.
The doctors involved in the surgery include Dr Vineet Mahajan (Surgeon), Dr Anshul Kumar (Surgeon), Dr Rakesh Kumar Choudhary (Surgeon), Dr Sheo Priye (Anaesthesiologist), Dr Nitesh Sinha (Anaesthesiologist), Dr Mukesh (Anaesthesiologist), Dr Prakash (Cardiologist), Dr Shashi (Cardiologist) and Amit Singh (Perfusionist).
Dr Rakesh shared, “This is the beginning of aortic surgery at RIMS. We will continue this and move forward. Very soon we will do one more major surgery. I feel that in the coming days this kind of difficult and rare surgery will become routine surgery as we are doing open-heart surgery at RIMS. The time will come when no patient of Jharkhand will have to go outsider treatment of cardiac diseases.”