Doctors in India performed the country’s first life-saving dual surgery—combining a coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and a radical mastectomy in a single session on a 72-year-old woman from Bangladesh. The 11-hour surgical procedure was performed at Fortis Escorts Hospital in Okhla.
Jahanara Beggum was admitted with symptoms of exhaustion, breathlessness, and a bleeding breast wound. Medical evaluation revealed critical arterial blockages and an ulcerated breast tumour.
The group of doctors, including Dr. Ritwick Raj Bhuyan, Dr. Archit Pandit, and Dr. Vineet Goel, used robot-assisted surgery to perform a heart bypass operation and then removed the cancerous breast and nearby glands.
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“We chose robot-assisted surgery, which allowed us to perform the heart bypass operation through small chest incisions rather than traditional open-heart surgery, minimising trauma and speeding recovery,” said Dr Ritwick Raj Bhuyan, Director of Adult Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery at Fortis Escorts.
After the cardiac surgery, the oncology team, led by Dr Archit Pandit and Dr Vineet Goel, proceeded to remove the cancerous breast tissue and surrounding lymph nodes without altering the surgical field.
“Her cancer had reached a critical stage and was bleeding continuously. However, her heart condition made standalone cancer surgery impossible,” said Dr Pandit, Director of Surgical Oncology.
“This was more than just a surgical success; it was an example of what timely multi-disciplinary teamwork and compassionate care can achieve. Performing a high-risk cardiac bypass on a patient in such a weak condition is challenging in itself. But what made this case truly difficult was the need to follow it up with cancer surgery in the same session,” Dr Bhuyan added.
