Mumbai, Aug 4 (IANS) A 20-member team of doctors Wednesday began a complicated double heart surgery on Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi at the Asian Heart Institute here.
‘The surgeries are progressing well and expected to be over by 3 p.m.,’ doctors at the hospital told IANS.
The chief minister is undergoing a bypass surgery and another surgery to replace an aortic valve with 70-80 percent blocks in two blood vessels.
He complained of breathing problems and a rise in blood pressure July 24 while attending a National Development Council meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.
Gogoi was then admitted to the Max Hospital in New Delhi and later shifted to the Asian Heart Institute.
‘We are anxiously waiting for the successful completion of the surgeries,’ Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
Sarma is camping in Mumbai along with a number of other lawmakers from the state. Opposition legislators also visited the hospital in Mumbai.
‘We are praying for the speedy recovery of the chief minister,’ Asom United Democratic Front legislator Sirajuddin Ajmal said after wishing luck to Gogoi’s wife at the hospital.
Eminent cardiac surgeon Ramakant Panda is leading the team of doctors for the two surgeries.
The team of doctors that carried out a bypass surgery on the prime minister last year was led by Panda, whose name is high on the list of the world’s top heart surgeons who perform high-risk surgeries.
He and his team are credited with having performed about 12,000 heart surgeries, including hundreds of those which most other doctors declared as inoperable.
