Italian medico’s R-Day gift - 10 low-cost heart surgeries

NASHIK - A world-renowned Italian medico gave a Republic Day gift to 10 Indian heart patients by performing low-cost angioplasty surgeries on them at a private hospital here.

The surgeries were performed by Imad Sheiban, 58, director of cardiology, University Hospital of Turin, Italy, at the Shri Sai Baba Heart Institute Tuesday.

Ten patients - three of them tribals - with complex blockages in their coronary arteries were carefully selected for the surgical procedures.

“All 10 patients are doing well and should be up and about by tomorrow,” Aniruddha Dharmadhikari, head and owner of the 60-bedded Shri Sai Baba Heart Institute, told IANS here Wednesday.

Dharmadhikari, 43, said the Israeli-born Sheiban was his senior when he was studying medicine at Milan University around 1998.

“I invited him to come and conduct the surgeries in Nashik. Usually, well-known medicos prefer to go only to the big cities, this is the first time that somebody of his stature came to a small town like ours,” smiled Dharmadhikari.

The temple town’s only full-fledged heart hospital, Shri Sai Baba Heart Institute, was inaugurated by Chief Minister Ashok Chavan six months ago, said Pallavi Dharmadhikari, a radiologist and wife of Aniruddha.

Dharmadhikari said since all the patients hail from economically weaker sections, the hospital charged them only for the equipment and drugs that were required during the surgery - the visiting doctor waived off his professional fees.

Sheiban was scheduled to fly back home Wednesday night after his three-day visit to Mumbai and Nashik, Pallavi said.