Ashwini Kumar Bhuniya, 87, underwent a cardiac surgery with a 2-inch incision on his chest on August 19.
Seven days later he was up on his feet and moving.
On Tuesday, Bhuniya came to Kolkata from Haldia to speak about his experience after undergoing the surgery.
“I was discharged from the hospital seven days after the surgery. Back home, I was free to do any activity,” he said.
The surgeon who operated on Bhuniya at a private hospital in the city said the minimally invasive surgery was the reason why Bhuniya, at this age, took such a short time to recover.
“Compared with standard surgery, the incision done in a minimally invasive surgery is way less. As a result, the scar is lesser and patients recover much faster,” said Sushan Mukhopadhyay, chief cardiac surgeon at Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals.
Mukhopadhyay said two more octogenarians underwent minimally invasive cardiac surgeries (MICS) in the last couple of years.
All of them are doing fine, he said.
“I have seen the trauma of an open-heart surgery overtaking the trauma of the disease that led to the surgery. The pain and other complications post-surgery became such big. But MICS is without trauma or scar,” he said.
Removal of tumours and blocks in the coronary artery, replacement of valves and repairing holes in the heart can be performed through MICS.
