Guwahati: Dhani Ram Baruah, a heart surgeon who runs the Dhani Ram Baruah Heart Institute and Institute of Applied Human Genetic Engineering in Sonapur, outside of Guwahati, is famed for his unusual procedures and claims of miraculous discoveries in the medical sciences at his own institution.
Baruah being a reputed heart surgeon conducted a bizarre surgery claiming of discovering a supplement way of treating severely ill patients through Xenotransplantation. A procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation, or infusion into a human host of either (a) live nonhuman animal cells, tissues, or organs, or (b) human body fluids, cells, tissues, or organs that have had ex vivo contact with live nonhuman animal cells, tissues, or organs.
The first-ever xenotransplantation took place in 1997, in his very own facility Dhani Ram Barua Heart Institute, Sonapur, Guwahati. The surgery was conducted in Purno Saikia a 32-year-old man who was claimed to have a Ventricular septal defect or hole in the heart, being the host body. Dr Barua was accompanied by Hong Kong's Dr Jonathan Ho Kei- Shin, who himself had his fair share of controversies with the Chinese Government in 1992 when he fit heart valves made from Ox tissues, which was also designed by Dr Dhani Ram Baruah.
The surgery was conducted for 15 hours, which later ended up killing Saikia within a week with multiple infections. The transplant resulted in the rejection of the outer transplanted organ by the host body due to several genetical malfunctions.
Both Assam's surgeon Dr Barua and Hong Kong's surgeon Dr Kein-Shin were arrested for their bizarre experiment. Dr Barua was detained for 40 days in jail. They were charged under section 304 of the IPC which states, culpable homicide not amounting to murder and section 18 of the IPC of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994. In addition to this failure, it was also later found that the Dr Dhani Ram Heart Institute and Research Centre did not apply nor obtain registration as required under the transplant law.
Dr Barua was later subjected to public harassment for his experiments and was called insane. Although his Institute was destroyed, his animal farm burnt, the power supply was cut off, he never stopped continuing his research. Later in 2011, he claimed to have discovered a cure for HIV/AIDS and has successfully cured 86 patients. But because of his non-forgetful medical history, this theory was never really taken into consideration.
Recently in Washington, a team of doctors' heads by Dr Robert Mongomery successfully conducted a similar surgery and transplanted a pig's kidney to a human host who was claimed to be brain dead with an utter kidney failure. The success of this surgery brought in to highlight the pioneer of Xenotransplantation in India which was conducted in the 1997 surgery by Cardiac Surgeon in Guwahati Dr Dhani Ram Barua for which he was subjected widely in the Country.
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