When Prabhu Ram’s medical investigations showed a huge cancerous tumour in his heart, the doctors at Wockhardt Hospital browsed through the medical literature, which threw up just three similar cases. While one was an autopsy report, the others were heart transplant and chemotherapy.

The doctors decided that neither transplant nor chemotherapy could be the option in this case. “It was literally a question of time. It’s impossible to get a heart so quickly and the therapy would take at least two weeks to show results,’’ said Dr N S Devanand, consultant cardiovascular surgeon at the Wockhardt Hospital.

For several days, Prabhu Ram has been suffering chest congestion. It led to severe pneumonia and breathlessness that left him with a swollen face. And he told doctors he was unable to bear it. “I could not even lie down, Prabhu Ram, a hardware mechanic from Rajasthan,’’ he said.

A team of doctors decided to remove the tumour surgically and the surgery was slated for May 29. “We knew it was very risky. In fact, we did inform his relatives that chances of patient losing his life on the operation table itself were high,’’ said Dr Devanand.

The fear only intensified when the chest was cut open at the theatre. “It was more messy than we thought it would be. The scans showed a huge tumour measuring 8x10x12 cm, which had blocked the blood flow into the chambers of the heart and right lung. When we opened the chest, we realised that it required heart reconstruction,’’ said Dr Murali Manohar, consultant cardiac surgeon, who was part of the surgical team.

After removing the tumour, which came out in bits and pieces, the upper chamber of the heart was rebuilt with outer covering of the heart — the pericardium. Passive bags were created with the covering to replicate the chamber. At the end of the five-hour long procedure, they realised that the blood flow was almost perfect.

“We found that they were working well,’’ said Dr Devanand. Prabu Ram has now been relieved of the heavy chest and has been declared fit for discharge. The doctors call it not just rare, but a challenging and creative surgery. “We would send this to reputed journals for publication,’’ said Dr Devanand. Prabhu Ram would now have to undergo six courses of chemotherapy to ensure that the cancer does not spread to other parts of the body.