Doelf Bachmann, at the age of 38 became the first angioplasty patient in the world to undergo balloon angioplasty on September 16, 1977. He enjoys being the posterboy of angioplasty. He has visited the world as a living advertisement of the angioplasty. Now Bachmann visits Mumbai at the behest of the organizing committee of the International Conference of Coronary Artery Disease, which is also observing 20 years of angioplasty in India. Dr. Mehta, head of cardiology department said, “We started a full-fledged angioplasty programme at Jaslok Hospital in 1988-89.”

Now angioplasty has become an established procedure and patients preferred it due to the short recovery period. Countless lives have been saved because of angioplasty.  

In Mumbai to talk about angioplasty, Bachmann said the fear of bypass surgery and its complications prompted him to volunteer for Dr. Andreas Gruentzig, a young physician at University Hospital of Zurich. “I chose angioplasty in spite of being slated for a bypass surgery the very next day and Dr Gruentzig explained to me the procedure in detail and his enthusiasm was infectious,” he says. 

Bachmann was a heavy smoker before the chest pains became a regular feature at the age of 38. “I quit smoking after the doctors advised me to,” he says. Then he underwent a second angioplasty seven years back and said “But I feel fine and I walk a lot every day.” About this surgery, Bachmann claims that there was no looking back and says, “ I have changed my job and settled all my personal problems. It’s smooth sailing now.”

“Patients were sceptical to opt for anything other than bypass surgery,” said Dr M S Hiremath, director of Cathlab, Ruby Hospital, Pune. But in the last years, the number of angioplasties performed in India has increased three-fold. Currently, every year in India, more than 80,000 angioplasties are performed as compared to 60,000 bypass surgeries.