Thaindian News

By Syed Zarir Hussain
Mumbai, Aug 4 (IANS) Three complicated heart surgeries were successfully carried out on Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi at the Asian Heart Institute here Wednesday.

“The chief minister is now fit and fine. We took about seven hours for a bypass surgery, a valve replacement surgery and an operation to enlarge two blocked arteries,” eminent cardiac surgeon Ramakant Panda told IANS.

The chief minister complained of breathing problem and rise in blood pressure July 24 while attending a National Development Council meeting in New Delhi, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

He was then admitted to the Max Hospital in New Delhi and later shifted to the Asian Heart Institute.

“He has regained consciousness and is being kept on ventilator until Thursday,” Panda said.

A 20-member team of doctors carried out the triple surgery.

“The chief minister will be at our care for at least three weeks and should be back to work in about four weeks from now,” Panda said.

“We are relieved to hear about the successful completion of the surgeries,” Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

Sarma is camping in Mumbai along with a number of other lawmakers from the state. Opposition legislators also visited the hospital in Mumbai.

“We are praying for the speedy recovery of the chief minister,” Sirajuddin Ajmal, Asom United Democratic Front legislator said after wishing luck to Gogoi’s wife at the hospital.

The team of doctors that carried out a bypass surgery on the prime minister last year was led by Panda, a man whose name comes very high on the list of the world’s top heart surgeons who perform high-risk surgeries.

He and his team is credited with having performed about 12,000 heart surgeries, including hundreds of those which most other doctors declared as inoperable.