LAHORE - Dr Ahmed ljaz Shah, an Allama lqbal Medical College (AIMC) alumnus, was recently recognised for his contribution to healthcare by the Macon Telegraph, a leading newspaper in the United States, says a press release. Dr Ahmed ljaz Shah, a graduate of AIMC class of 1995-96, is a cardiologist serving as Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Mercer University School of Medicine, who together with a fellow cardiac surgeon used a minimally invasive technique to place a ventricular assist device (TandemHeart) to assist a critically ill patient for the first time in Middle Georgia. This unique medical procedure allowed the duo to save an 80 year old patients life; a woman who may not have survived otherwise. The 80-year-old female patient had suffered a devastating heart attack, which lead to the failure of the right ventricle, preventing blood from circulating to her lungs and causing other parts of her body to shut down. The ventricular assist device (right ventricular assist device or RVAD) was used to pump blood artificially, bypassing the failed right ventricle of the heart and circulating blood throughout her body. Given her age and a variety of physical ailments, including low blood pressure and failing kidneys, the patient was unlikely to survive open heart surgery. Dr Shah was of the opinion that most cardiologists tended to shy away from the device, but he had developed a keen interest in the apparatus and would be opening a special-purpose heart failure clinic where the TandemHeart device would be an instrumental part of treatment.