Sri Lanka's first ever heart transplant ... a success!

Sri Lanka's first ever heart transplant ... a success!

A team of specialist surgeons at Kandy General Hospital has been successful in carrying out a surgery on a heart transplant for the first time.

The beneficiary of this surgery was a female aged 36 years old. The heart concerned was secured from a young man aged 23 years who was the victim of a road accident and was seriously injured. His heartbeat was maintained by a

machine at the Neurological Treatment Unit of the Kandy General Hospital. After confirming that his brain had stopped functioning, on permission obtained from his kith and kin the young man's heart was transplanted to the aforementioned lady, Director of Kandy General Hospital Dr. Saman Ratnayaka said.

A team comprising 20 specialist doctors attended to this heart transplant and a time period of 8 hours had been spent on the operation. This transplant was successfully carried out last 7th Thursday and after the transplant the health condition of the patient is under surveillance at the Heart Intensive Care Unit and Director Mr. Ratnayaka said that her condition is satisfactory. The two kidneys of the dead youth who underwent the accident were successfully transplanted to two kidney patients. This in fact is the first heart transplant carried out in the medical history of this country.