In a first-of-its-kind case, a 96-year-old man survived a five-hour long open heart bypass surgery at BlK Super Speciality Hospital creating a milestone in India’s medical accomplishments.
JC Mehta, a children’s book author and former director of Delhi Public library, came to the hospital with suspected heart failure and had several minor heart attacks while at the hospital. “His heart was only functioning up to 30 per cent of its efficiency but being 96 years old we decided to first put him on medicines. However, he again got the nose bleed and his heart kept deteriorating. So then we decided to conduct an angiography to see if this can be cured through angioplasty. But the blockages were too extensive. It was when he again had a minor heart attack that it was enough. Thus, with the consent of the family, we went ahead with the surgery,” said Dr Neeraj Bhalla, head of cardiology.
The first three days after the surgery were very critical for him, added Dr Sushant Srivastava, who conducted the surgery. “At 96, one doesn’t think of surgery. It was a technical challenge. His tissues were very fragile and there was high chance of fracturing his bones or injuring an artery. After the surgery the first few days were very crucial and we didn’t want to lose the battle at the finishing line. He was under critical care but his heart slowly started functioning properly and he recovered very well,” he informed.
Mehta was discharged from the hospital on Friday in a fit condition. “I have never been admitted in a hospital all my life. When I was brought here everything seemed so strange,” said Mehta who was recently awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Children’s Book Trust. His daughter Ritu Thareja calls this his second life. “We wouldn’t have been able to watch him die in front of us. We knew that the surgery was the only way,” she said.
According to Ritu, Mehta was an illustrated poet as well and had a very close literary association with Khushwant Singh. “His poems used to get published in Singh’s column — With Malice Towards One and All. We haven’t yet told him about Khushwant Singh’s demise. He will be shattered. Even now after the surgery he asked us if his poem had appeared in Singh’s column. We just don’t have the heart to tell him,” she said. Mehta added, “I was in touch with Khushwant since our lahore days. I have had the longest literary association with him.”
Though Mehta mainly writes in Urdu, some of his famous works have been in English, Hindi and Punjabi as well. Remembering Our leaders and Read Aloud Stories are two of his bestselling works. “He has also written speeches for Jawaharlal Nehru,” informed Ritu. Mehta is now planning to go back to writing and will soon publish his yet unfinished works.