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SSSIHMS TODAY
In Prasanthi Gram did the Lord a Healing
Dome Decree
Ailing Hearts and failing eyes, to cure, without a fee.
Soon the rose a stately temple on this ground
To spread health and wellness all around.
Amidst hill and dale and verdant grove,
Stands this beacon of Healing Love,
Our Lord's Message beaming to all,
Love All, Serve All.
K.Vishwanathan,
(Chief Engineer, SSSIHMS)
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Ever since that historic day in November 1991 the Sri Sathya
Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences has made purposeful
strides towards fulfilling its destiny under the Divine Guidance
of our Beloved Swami.
On the 22nd November 1992, the Department
of Uro-Nephrology was commissioned, and a unit for kidney
transplantation was inaugurated a year after that. In November
1994, the Department of Ophthalmology was started and the
Institute began offering post-graduate programs for training
of specialists in Cardio thoracic Surgery, Cardiology, Urology,
Anesthesiology and Ophthalmology. With passing years, the
existing services in each department also expanded. Computerized
Tomography (CT) scanning facility was introduced in November
1996; and the Lithotripsy Center was added to the Department
of Urology in June 1999. The SSSIHMS also made advancements
in surgeries, other interventions and diagnostics, in keeping
with the best practices in centers of excellence, world over.
| Who Needs
the Pump Anyway?
Its
been two years since Dr.Neelam Desai, Senior
Cardiac Surgeon -SSSIHMS, has used a heart-lung
machine for a routine Coronary Artery Bypass
Surgery. She has totally gone 'off-pump'!
A bypass surgery is performed, when the
blood vessels that supply blood to the heart
(the coronary arteries), are blocked. In
a coronary artery bypass surgery, surgeons
sew a blood vessel into a coronary artery
to reroute blood around a region where it
is blocked.  There
was a time when this surgery, was performed
only 'on-pump'. In an on-pump procedure,
the heart is stopped and blood is detoured
around both the heart and the lungs, but
circulated through the rest of the body.
However, the use of heart-lung machines
can cause potentially fatal complications.
Off-pump surgery reduces these problems
and has a faster recovery. In the off-pump
operation, using a device called the "Octopus",
surgeons limit the motion of a portion of
the heart, and perform the bypass on a beating
heart.Dr.Neelam Desai, who performs 90%
of the bypass surgeries 'off-pump', agrees
that this procedure is more demanding than
the on-pump procedure, but adds, "The
patient definitely benefits from the off-pump
surgery. Their post-operative stay in the
hospital is both, shorter and healthier!"
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Shocking the Stone!
For
the doctors in the Department of Urology,
SSSIHMS, its an odd coincidence the place
they work at, is in the Rayalaseema area
of Andhra Pradesh; simply translated as
the Land of Stones. The incidence of kidney
stones (Renal Calculus) in this area is
amongst the highest in the country. In the
past, all kidney stones were removed surgically.
In June 1999, Swami gave the Extracorporeal
Shock Wave Lithotripter to the SSSIHMS,
at a cost of a few cores of rupees, revolutionizing
the removal of kidney stones in the  hospital.
With this machine, stones below the size
of 3 cm, in the kidney and the ureter, are
now removed without any surgery! The stones
are first localized using ultrasound or
fluoroscopy, and then pulverized into tiny
fragments with the application of shock
waves. Dr. Ram Gopal, Head of the Department
of Urology, opines, "With this method,
patients are spared of surgery, consequent
hospitalization and post-operative pain.
The actual treatment takes about an hour
and the patient is discharged within a day.
It is really a boon to many of our poor
patients, who live on daily wages. They
can get back to work soon and the loss of
man-hours of work is reduced." To date,
over 1500 patients have been treated with
the ESWL, and the number grows by the day…
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As one enters the soothing premises of the central dome,
one clearly sees the most important Message of Bhagawan inscribed
on a plaque - "Paropakarartham Idam Sareeram," meaning,
the body is given to serve others. That is the guiding principle
in whatever Swami does and what He expects the staff to do
in this temple of healing. Cutting edge technology, backed
by a dedicated team of medical and paramedical personnel,
and above all the Divine Grace of Sai, have enabled the hospital
in notching up an impressive record. More than five lakh patients
have been treated in all the out patient departments over
the past nine years. More than ten thousand heart surgeries
have alleviated the sufferings of as many families and given
new life to them. Thousands more have benefited directly from
Urological procedures, some of which were quite complex. Almost
ten thousand ophthalmic surgeries have given vision to those
with eye defects. Thousands more, admitted in hopeless conditions,
have walked back home, healed in body and spirit. When one
sits back and contemplates on the enormity of work done, one
cannot but wonder at the Divine Love of Sai, who has set an
example for all of us to emulate.
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