Sixty Five Year Old American Patient, Mr. Ronald Lemmer underwent heart transplant surgery in Apollo Hospital, Chennai, India.  Mr. Lemmer was fortunate to get the heart of a 36-year-old man who was declared brain dead after a road accident.

Mr. Lemmer is the oldest person and first U.S National to get a heart transplant in India.  Mr. Lemmer took a chance in traveling to India to get his surgery in India and fortunate enough to get match and got a heart lot sooner, as there is 1.5 year wait in U.S.A for a heart transplant.

Apollo, Chennai was the first and the flagship hospital for Apollo group, started by Pratap C. Reddy 25 years ago.  Apollo has conducted 38,000 heart operations in last 25 years.  Apollo group has more than 40 world class hospitals, in India.  In India, heart transplants are done only in major cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Hyderabad.

A heart transplant surgery in India costs around Rs. 800,000 to One million rupees, which is roughly equivalent to U.S $20,000.

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