Life's a miracle for this judge with 2 pacemakers

KEEPING PACE: 74-year-old Mohini Kapur is the first Indian to be fitted with two pacemakers.

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Keywords: Neurosurgeon , Parkinson\'s Disease

Mumbai: Seventy-four-year-old Mohini Kapur's hat just about hides her bandages. A retired High Court judge, she is the first Indian to be fitted with two pacemakers – one in her heart and the other in her brain.

After a successful surgery and flanked by her family, Mohini is now celebrating her return to normalcy. “My granddaughter asked me can you run and I say yes,” a moist-eyed Mohini said.

Mohini has Parkinson's disease, which causes involuntary tremors and stiffness. To avoid lifelong immobility, Mohini opted for dual pacemaker surgery and became the eighth person in the world to do so.

For a surgery as rare as this one, one of the main challenges was avoiding electrical interference from her cardiac pacemaker that had been implanted a decade ago.

“We kept both the devices at a distance of a foot to avoid electrical interference,” stereotactic neurosurgeon at Jaslok Hospital, Dr Paresh Doshi said.

Electrodes are implanted in the centre of the brain and subcutaneously routed to the pacemaker or deep brain stimulator, which is implanted below the rib cage. It sends electrical impulses to stimulate brain cells thereby controlling Parkinson's symptoms.

The device needs to be replaced every five years and costs around Rs 4 lakh. But all this doesn't perturb Mohini in the least as work is beckoning.

“There are arbitration cases waiting and so much more to do,” Mohini said excitedly.

So here's wishing Mohini a long life ahead as she steps toward a better tomorrow.