{"id":100761,"date":"2025-03-17T09:17:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T09:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=100761"},"modified":"2025-03-17T09:17:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T09:17:56","slug":"two-more-young-pakistanis-to-embark-journey-to-india-for-heart-transplants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/100761\/","title":{"rendered":"Two more young Pakistanis to embark journey to India for heart transplants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Pakistan(National Times)- ISLAMABAD: Two young Pakistanis are once again forced to embark on a desperate journey to India for life-saving heart transplants with dying hearts and shattered hopes, as their own country remains incapable of giving them a second chance,\u00a0<em>The News<\/em>\u00a0reported. A 21-year-old computer science student from Sialkot, Emaan Taufiq and 25-year-old Asad Ali from Karachi (name changed on request) are battling dilated cardiomyopathy, a severe form of heart failure. Heart transplants remain impossible due to the absence of a deceased organ donation system despite Pakistan having world-class cardiac surgeons and state-of-the-art medical facilities. Legal frameworks exist, but deep-rooted cultural and religious beliefs prevent families from allowing organ harvesting from brain-dead patients. As a result, those who can afford it \u2014 or those desperate enough to sell their possessions \u2014 are left struggling to secure Indian visas and raise up to $150,000 for a transplant. Emaan is among the lucky few who obtained a six-month Indian visa for treatment in Chennai, but now her father, Muhammad Taufiq, faces the monumental challenge of arranging the funds. \u201cI spent five years just securing a visa for my daughter, and now we need at least $100,000 to $150,000 to proceed with the transplant,\u201d he said. \u201cI have already sold everything I could, but I still need around Rs20 million. I appeal to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, and philanthropists to help us.\u201d Asad, also diagnosed with the same condition, is struggling to arrange the necessary funds. His family, like many others, is left wondering why heart transplants remain out of reach in Pakistan. According to experts, the issue is not a lack of medical expertise but the complete absence of organ donation. Faisal Abdullah Malik, Pakistan\u2019s longest-surviving heart transplant recipient, knows this struggle firsthand.\u00a0 In 2015, he travelled to Chennai, where he received a donor heart from an Indian citizen \u2014 giving him nearly a decade of life. \u201cIn Pakistan, we have some of the best cardiac surgeons, but they can\u2019t perform heart transplants because no one donates organs after death,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery year, hundreds of patients die waiting for a transplant, simply because we do not have a culture of organ donation.\u201d In contrast, India has built a thriving transplant system through extensive awareness campaigns. The Tamil Nadu state-run Transplant Authority (TRANSTAN) has facilitated over 600 heart and lung transplants by promoting public pledges and coordinating organ retrieval from brain-dead patients. Dr KR Balakrishnan, the Indian surgeon who has performed many of these transplants \u2014 including those for Pakistani patients \u2014 believes Pakistan can achieve the same success if a structured donation programme is implemented.\u00a0 \u201cThe expertise is there. What\u2019s missing is a system that supports heart transplantation,\u201d he said. Pakistan\u2019s Federal Shariat Court ruled in 2009 that organ donation is permissible in Islam, and the Human Organ Transplant Authority (HOTA) was established to regulate transplants.\u00a0 However, hospitals rarely report brain-dead patients for organ retrieval, and families often refuse consent, even if it could save multiple lives. The consequences have been devastating. In 2018, legendary Pakistani hockey goalkeeper Mansoor Ahmed Khan died from dilated cardiomyopathy after failing to secure a transplant.\u00a0 Renowned Pakistani-American cardiac surgeon Dr Pervaiz Chaudhry had offered to implant a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD), a temporary heart failure solution, but it was not enough to save his life. Dr Chaudhry has long pushed for a heart transplant programme in Pakistan. \u201cI have performed over 71 heart and lung transplants abroad and trained for this procedure in the US,\u201d he said.\u00a0 He added: \u201cI started an LVAD programme at NICVD Karachi \u2014 the first step toward heart transplantation \u2014 but it never materialised.\u201d A decade ago, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) announced transplant programmes, but no procedures were ever conducted.\u00a0 Experts warn that without an urgent shift in public attitudes toward organ donation, Pakistan will continue losing lives unnecessarily.\u00a0 \u201cIf families of brain-dead patients allow donations, we could save hundreds of lives every year,\u201d said Faisal Abdullah Malik. \u201cThis is the best form of charity, a true \u2018sadqa jariya\u2019.\u201d As Emaan and Asad prepare for their desperate journey to Chennai, the question remains: how many more Pakistanis must leave\u2014or die\u2014before their own country offers them a chance to live?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistan(National Times)- ISLAMABAD: Two young Pakistanis are once again forced to embark on a desperate journey to India for life-saving heart transplants with dying hearts and shattered hopes, as their own country remains incapable of giving them a second chance,\u00a0The News\u00a0reported. A 21-year-old computer science student from Sialkot, Emaan Taufiq and 25-year-old Asad Ali from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Two more young Pakistanis to embark journey to India for heart transplants - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/100761\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two more young Pakistanis to embark journey to India for heart transplants - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pakistan(National Times)- ISLAMABAD: Two young Pakistanis are once again forced to embark on a desperate journey to India for life-saving heart transplants with dying hearts and shattered hopes, as their own country remains incapable of giving them a second chance,\u00a0The News\u00a0reported. A 21-year-old computer science student from Sialkot, Emaan Taufiq and 25-year-old Asad Ali from [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/100761\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-17T09:17:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-670x370-2025-03-17T142036.477.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/100761\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/100761\/\",\"name\":\"Two more young Pakistanis to embark journey to India for heart transplants - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/100761\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/100761\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-670x370-2025-03-17T142036.477.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-17T09:17:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/100761\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/100761\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/100761\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-670x370-2025-03-17T142036.477.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-670x370-2025-03-17T142036.477.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/100761\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Two more young Pakistanis to embark journey to India for heart transplants\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Two more young Pakistanis to embark journey to India for heart transplants - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/100761\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Two more young Pakistanis to embark journey to India for heart transplants - Nation","og_description":"Pakistan(National Times)- ISLAMABAD: Two young Pakistanis are once again forced to embark on a desperate journey to India for life-saving heart transplants with dying hearts and shattered hopes, as their own country remains incapable of giving them a second chance,\u00a0The News\u00a0reported. 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