Three operations were conducted simultaneously on a 75-year old man at the CHl Apollo Hospital, Indore. They included bypass surgery, valve replacement and removal of blockage of coronary arteries. The surgeries, performed on March 28, went along for eight hours. The 75-year old patient has completely recovered.

The hospital claims that the operation is first of its kind in the country in which the three surgeries related to the heart were performed together. It is the third time in the world when this type of operation has been performed, said Dr Manish Porwal.

The patient, resident of Infinity Tower of Dream City had come to the hospital on March 24 for checkup. He had been suffering from giddiness and coma for 15 days. Dr Rajeev Khare did his check-up and after examination it was found that the carotid artery which supplies blood to the brain was 90 per cent blocked which made him unconscious. The aortic valve of his heart was completely shrunk and a thick layer of calcium was formed on it. In angiography it was found that two main blood vessels of the heart were 90 per cent blocked.

The doctors decided that all the three operations should be done together. If all the three surgeries were done separately it was impossible for the patient to recover. Heart specialist Dr Manish Porwal, Dr Rajeev Khare, Dr Jagdish Khandeparkar, Dr Jitendra Sankhala, Dr Vijay Mahajan, Dr Manoj Gupta and Dr Subhash Reddy planned the surgery. After eight days of post-operative care the patient was discharged.

Dr Manish Porwal said, "We tried to find the record of such type of surgery. We contacted many medical colleges including AIIMS but record of such type of surgery was not found anywhere. This operation is first of its kind in India in which three operations of heart was done together on a 75-year-old patient. This type of surgery had been performed in Europe and Germany."