18-year-old Tamil boy's heart beats for 33-year-old Kashmir woman
India Today
A heart from an 18-year-old brain-dead boy has given a new lease of life to a 33-year-old Kashmiri woman.
Till a few weeks back, Shahzadi Fathima, a 33-year-old woman from Srinagar, did not know how much time she had in her life. Shahzadi had a terminal heart failure called restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM), a condition where the chambers of the heart become stiff over time. But an 18-year-old boy from Tamil Nadu became Shahzadi's lifeline.
On Republic Day, Shahzadi got a heart transplant. But her journey till date has been one of a fighter.
Shahzadi lived in Srinagar with her brother Mohammad Younis, a daily wage earner who was not able to meet her medical expenses and the cost of the transplant. He helplessly saw his sister deteriorating every passing day.
"In Kashmir, we couldn't identify what was wrong with her. Only after going to Chandigarh did we realise that she had a heart problem. We felt so helpless. She was getting worse and we were not able to do anything, we didn't have the money to do a transplant," Mohammad Younis said.
They were rescued by a doctor who had treated Shahzadi earlier.
Tamil Nadu hospital to the rescue
After seeing Shahzadi's deteriorating condition, Dr R Ravikumar, senior consultant & clinical lead of Cardiology & Heart Failure Program, MGM Healthcare roped in a special team from the Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant & Mechanical Circulatory Support at MGM Healthcare and started the effort to help Shahzadi and her family. Dr R Ravikumar had treated her before.
