Doctors at Aster Ramesh Hospitals successfully performed a heart transplant on a 26-year-old man suffering from end-stage heart failure, offering him a new lease of life, senior cardiologist Pothineni Ramesh Babu said at a press conference on Friday.

The patient had been battling Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) for nearly three years. Despite continuous medical treatment, his condition progressively deteriorated, and he had earlier survived a sudden cardiac arrest. Doctors found that his heart’s pumping capacity had declined drastically, resulting in severe heart failure and recurrent life-threatening rhythm disturbances.

As his condition continued to worsen, the medical team determined that heart transplantation was the only viable treatment option. He was subsequently registered under the Jeevandan organ donation programme and placed on the transplant waiting list.

A suitable donor heart became available from a 17-year-old brain-dead donor from Machavaram in Vijayawada. Following organ retrieval and compatibility assessments, the transplant surgery was successfully performed on May 26, 2026.

Dr. Ramesh Babu said the complex procedure was carried out by a multidisciplinary team comprising cardiac surgeons, cardiologists, cardiac anaesthesiologists, critical care specialists and nursing staff. The patient is currently recovering under close medical supervision.

He added that the cost of the transplant was jointly borne by the Andhra Pradesh government and the Ramesh Hospitals Trust.