Under Centre's Ayushman Bharat health scheme, first open-heart surgery successfully performed free of cost at Tripura's GB Pant Hospital

Agartala (Tripura) [India], January 22 (ANI): In a significant development under the Centre's Ayushman Bharat health scheme, the first open-heart surgery was successfully performed at Tripura's Agartala Government Medical College and GB Pant Hospital, free of cost.
Addressing reporters, the Principal of Agartala Medical College, Manjushri Roy said, "We are pleased to inform you all that a complex operation like open-heart surgery is performed successfully at GBP hospital Agartala. This will help the patients from across the state to get tertiary care at their doorstep."
Asked whether more such operations would be performed in the future, Roy replied, "These operations are very critical in nature and require a lot of preparation for both the patients as well as the doctors. With limited resources, we can't do two surgeries a day but yes this is a constant process."
Speaking exclusively to ANI, Dr Kanak Narayan Bhattacharjee, Concultant of the Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS) department at the GB Pant Hospital said, "This is for the first time such a surgery has been performed under my observation. All the technicians, anesthesiologists and staff nurses played a very crucial role in this complicated surgery."
She further informed that the cath lab (an examination room in a hospital or clinic with diagnostic imaging equipment used to visualize the arteries of the heart and the chambers of the heart and treat any stenosis or abnormality found) started its journey in July last year. In this intervening period, a total of 124 cath lab procedures have been successfully completed that include coronary angiogram, temporary and permanent pacemaker implantation and digital subtraction angiography etc.
Apart from that, a total of three heart and vascular surgeries were performed including recent open-heart surgery. All the patients went home back without any mortality, she said.
Meanwhile, sources in the hospital also informed ANI, two new cardiologists have joined GBP hospital recently and there are plans to expand the department of Cardio therapy and Vascular and Interventional Radiology.
The patient Madhabi Rani Das (46) who had been operated on at GBP hospital had a ventricular septal defect. The patient hails from Udaipur under the Gomati district.
The whole surgery was done free of cost as she was a beneficiary of the Ayushman Bharat health scheme. (ANI)