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Saturday, July 26, 2014

CRH conducts Sikkim’s first successful Angioplasty and Stenting procedure

GANGTOK, 25 July: Central Referral Hospital, Tadong, East Sikkim, has become the first hospital in Sikkim to successfully conduct an angioplasty and stenting procedure, a milestone it achieved on 21 July.
The angioplasty and stenting surgery was performed on 48 yr old Saroj Rai from Temi Tarku in South Sikkim by Dr. Ashutosh Sinha, MD, DM, Consultant Cardiologist, CRH.
A CRH press release informs that Mr. Rai had first come to CRH with complaints of chest pain and shortness of breath. He was unable to walk even a few steps without running out of breath and suffering acute chest pain.
A series of investigations, which included a CT Angiography, were carried out which revealed that he had coronary artery disease with 90 percent block in his left artery. An additional coronary angiography confirmed the diagnosis.
Coronary artery disease is the narrowing of the coronary arteries (the blood vessels that supply oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle), caused by a buildup of fatty material within the walls of the arteries. This buildup causes the inside of the arteries to become rough and narrowed, limiting the supply of oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle. The block can be life-threatening and the patient had significant chest pain limiting his routine activities.
After much consideration and discussions with the family, it was decided to go ahead with the angioplasty, the release informs. A minimum invasive Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) was performed on Mr. Rai to open the blocked coronary artery caused by the coronary artery disease and to restore arterial blood flow to the heart at the state-of-the-art Cath Lab at the Super Specialty Wing of CRH. A stent was then inserted into the newly-opened area of the artery to help keep the artery from narrowing or closing again.
Propitiously for Mr. Rai, he received the treatment without having to incur heavy financial burden. He was enrolled under the Sikkim Manipal Swasthya Suraksha (SMSS), a health scheme launched by CRH earlier this year and the required treatment was available at CRH.
Under the SMSS scheme, Mr. Rai was entitled to wide-ranging medical benefits including hospitalization expenses coverage in the general ward of CRH to an extent of Rs. 1,50,000. An angioplasty and stenting procedure can cost upto Rs. One lakh and above excluding hospital stay and other expenses.
“I was one of the first persons to enroll myself and my family-my wife and two children-in SMSS. Today, this scheme has come as a boon to me. Not only my treatment and surgery expenses were taken care of, I did not have to travel all the way to Kolkata or Delhi for this kind of intervention as these procedures were earlier not available in Sikkim. I was really worried about the medical expenses but thank God, I had SMSS. It saved me valuable time and money. I am really thankful to CRH, Dr. Ashutosh Sinha and SMSS for giving me a new lease of life,” Mr. Rai, a Temi tea garden worker, is quoted by the release as sharing.
He was scheduled to be discharged today.
“Saroj will need to continue with his medications lifelong and also make some important lifestyle changes, which will ensure that his condition will not recur,” Dr. Sinha said.

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