Yesterday once more for Assam pig-heart transplant ‘pioneer’ Dhani Ram Baruah

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Prabin.Kalita@timesgroup.com

12.01.2022

Guwahati: Dr Dhani Ram Baruah, the maverick surgeon from Assam who was arrested 25 years ago after he claimed to have kept a terminally ill patient alive for a week on a pig’s heart and lungs, can no longer speak coherently because of illness. But he remembers clearly, with a mix of regret and happiness, the controversial jour ney of the “medical breakthrough” that is now the toast of science but no longer belongs to him.

As news arrived from the US about the first-ever full, live pigheart transplant into a human, 72-year-old Baruah could barely suppress a smile at the thought of what might have been, longtime associate Dr Geeta told TOIon Tuesday. “One is unable to understand most of what he is saying,” she said. “But he conveyed to me that he remembers the surgery he perfor med on January1,1997, on Purno Saikia. ”

The patient, a 32-year-old with a ventricular septal defect,

or a hole in the heart, lived on the transplanted pig’s heart and lungs for seven days at Baruah’s hilltop facility in Sonapur on the outskirts of Guwahati before he died of multiple infections.

Baruah, a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in the UK, had a heart surgeon from Hong Kong, Dr Jonathan Ho, assist him in the transplant. “We had initiated the pre-surgery preparation like finding blood donors since December 30, 1996. The final preparation was done 48 hours before the surgery,” Dr Geeta said. After the events were reported, the then AGP government in Assam arrested both Baruah and Ho on the charge of violating the Human Organs Transplantation Act that bars xenotransplantation. Both were kept at Guwahati jail for 40 days before being freed on bail. When he returned from jail, Baruah found his clinic, laboratory and pig farm at Dr Dhaniram Heart Institute and Research Centre gutted in a blaze. Dr Geeta said the surgeon had no knowledge of what happened to his case.

His advocate Nilamani Sen Deka, who went on to become agriculture minister in the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress cabinet, said on Tuesday, “Dr Baruah deserves Nobel for his pioneering work on pig-organ transplantation. He was a victim of the then government in the state. ”

US docs transplant genetically modified pig’s heart into human

 US docs transplant genetically modified pig’s heart into human

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Chidanand.Rajghatta@timesgroup.com

12.01.2022

Washington: In what was claimed to be the first-of-itskind surgery in the world, doctors at the University of Maryland School of Medicine outside Washington DC have successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into a 57-year-old patient with terminal illness.

The patient, Maryland resident David Bennett, is doing well three days after the surgery, the university’s medical center said on Monday, as doctors who performed the operation revealed the transplanted heart was working normally and creating the pulse and pressure associated with the human heart. The surgery took place on Friday and took about eight hours.

A mix of regret and happiness for Dr Baruah

Dr Dhani Ram Baruah, 72, the maverick surgeon from Assam who was held 25 years ago after he claimed to have kept a terminally ill patient alive for seven days on a pig’s heart and lungs, can no longer speak coherently because of an illness, reports Prabin Kalita. But he remembers, with a mix of regret and happiness, the controversial journey of his “medical breakthrough”. On getting the US news, he could barely suppress a smile, aide Dr Geeta said. 

 

3 dental colleges get notices for excess fees

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12.01.2022

Bengaluru: The admission overseeing committee has sent notices to three dental colleges in the state for charging excess fees for PG courses, reports Sruthy Susan Ullas. The panel has asked the colleges to refund the additional fees or they have to show cause as to why action should not be initiated against them for violating the consensual agreement.

The colleges which have been sent notices are Rajarajeshwari Dental College and Hospital, Bengaluru; Oxford Dental College, Bengaluru; and Maratha Mandal Dental College, Belagavi.

We’ve receipts from students, says panel

The committee is headed by Justice B Manohar. The colleges have been accused of collecting Rs 1.2 lakh more than the prescribed fee.

According to the agreement signed between the government and the Karnataka Religious and Linguistic Minority Professional Colleges Association and Association of Professional Colleges in Karnataka, the colleges can collect Rs 3.6 lakh for government-quota seats and Rs 6 lakh for private-quota seats. Additionally, other fees of Rs 15,000 a year and transportation fees can be collected. Colleges can also charge an additional Rs 30,000 as skill fees, if they provide it. According to the complaints received by the committee, when students went to colleges for reporting, the college authorities “demanded and forcefully collected Rs 1.2 lakh towards dental material and clinical fee”.

“Any fee collected over and above the fee mentioned in the covenant is contrary to law and construed as collection of capitation fee which was prohibited under the provisions of Karnataka Educational Institutions (prohibition of capitation fee) Act,1984,” read the notices.

“The notices were dispatched on Tuesday. We’ve the admission order and receipts from students. They have charged Rs 75,000 for dental material and Rs 50,000 for clinical labs, which are not permissible under law,” said Justice B Manohar.

Maratha Mandal Group of Institutions president Rajshree Nagaraju told TOI they have not yet received the notice. “For every amount we are charging, we are giving a receipt. We have also displayed on our website the fees we are charging. We have a research centre, which is a centre for excellence approved by RGUHS, where we give skill development programme, and a red cross fee that we give to the university. Students have the right to ask if I am not giving a receipt. Here, there is a receipt and a reason. There is transparency,” she said.

RR Nagar Dental College said it did not want to respond until it received the notice.

Oxford Dental College said they have not asked students to pay any fees at the college. “We have not asked students to come and pay any fees in our college. Students have to pay fees only at KEA. The last date for admissions, as per Dental Council of India, was November 20. However, the state government conducted the counseling in December. Hence, all admissions are yet to be approved,” said Dr AR Pradeep, principal.

BJ medicos threaten stir

 BJ medicos threaten stir

12.01.2022

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Ahmedabad: Junior doctors at BJ Medical College (BJMC) and Civil Hospital on Tuesday wrote another letter to college dean, Jayesh Sachdeva, warning that if action was not taken on the complaints made against Dr Kamlesh Upadhayaya, head of medicine department, and Dr Ila Upadhyaya, head of ENT department, then they would launch an agitation at work on Wednesday.

The letter from the Junior Doctors’ Association states that if no action is taken, they will go on a hunger strike on campus and may even stay away from work. The letter set a deadline of 5pm on Wednesday. The junior doctors have accused both these HoDs of mental harassment.

TNN

State reserves 10% seats in PG courses for in-service doctors

 State reserves 10% seats in PG courses for in-service doctors

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

12.01.2022

Ahmedabad: A 10% reservation in postgraduate medical courses has been reserved for in-service doctors working at district and taluka health centres. The state health department on Tuesday notified the rules for implementing this reservation.

The rules list 10 branches in which reservations will be implemented — paediatrics, TB and chest, obstetrics and gynaecology, preventive and social medicine, orthopaedics, general surgery and medicine. Anaesthetics, radiology and pathology are not on the list. The eligibility conditions are that the in-service doctors have to be Class 2 officers, should have been appointed by the Gujarat Public Service Commission, and have completed three years of service. The age limit to avail of this reservation has been set at 45 years.

If an in-service doctor leaves the course midway, according to the government's bond policy, they will have to pay 25% of their Rs 40 lakh bond, i. e. Rs10 lakh.

The candidate doctors must have cleared NEET-PG. This reservation will be implemented in the 2022-23 admission procedure.

Thus with SC, ST and OBC quotas accounting for 49%, 10% EWS quota, 5% for persons with disabilities and 10% reservation for in-service doctors, a total of 74% of seats will be reserved.

Over 2K barred from trains

 Over 2K barred from trains

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12.01.2022

Chennai: Southern Railway has stopped 2,177 people from travelling by suburban trains as they did not have vaccination certificates since the rule came into effect on Monday.

The railways has said that only people who have taken two doses of vaccines will be allowed to travel on suburban trains. Commuters should produce the certificate to buy tickets and to renew season tickets.

Crackdown on people without masks at stations and trains too have been intensified. Thirty one cases were booked and ₹15,500 was collected as fine.

TNN

 

Slow down on ECR, speed detection system may be in place by Jan-end

Will Book Those Driving Over 80kmph

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Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

12.01.2022

Chennai: You may want to reconsider the next time you think of stepping on the gas while on East Coast Road. Starting this month, a speed detection system would book people who drive faster than 80kmph on the stretch.

Every year, at least 50 accidents are reported on ECR and 90% of these are due to according to speeding, official data. Despite police patrols, traffic violations continue unabated. To put an end to such violations and reduce road accidents, the Tamil Nadu government in February 2020 began installing an advanced traffic management project along the 33km stretch between Akkarai and Mahabalipuram on ECR.

The project, set up at ₹8. 6 crore, has three components — Vehicle-Activated Speed Signs (VASS), an Automatic Speed Enforcement System (ASES) and a Video Incident Detection System (VIDS).

A pole-mounted VASS, installed by the road or on the central median, can measure the speed of the approaching vehicle and display it on a screen. Every time a driver exceeds the speed limit, the VASS displays the speed in red.

As a follow-up measure, HD cameras are installed near these display boards to automatically detect these speeding vehicles. The ASES will transfer the vehicle (registration number) details to the local police, who will issue a traffic challan in the name of the vehicle owner, said a Tamil Nadu Road Sector Project (TNRSP) official.

Though all the infrastructure was ready, the project remained a non-starter. The control and command centre at Uthandi toll plaza was kept locked for most part of the day. However, a trial run of the project began recently.

“Discussions are going on with other government agencies like National Informatics Centre (NIC), which maintains the database for all registered vehicles in the country. Before January-end, the project and recorded data will be handed over to police,” the TNRSP official added.

While ECR residents have welcomed the project, they complained that basic road safety initiatives have been kept pending. B Sricharan of Kanathur pointed out that some portions are poorly-lit and have no road signs warning motorists about curves or speed breakers ahead. “This is why even when you travel at 50kmph, it is still dangerous on ECR,” he said.