Gone are the days when a patient who needs a valve replacement had to undergo a risky open-heart surgery. A 76-year old woman, Jyotsna Gujarathi, recently received a new pulmonary valve in her heart in a non-surgical procedure at Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital.

Known as Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Replacement, the procedure was carried out last month by cardiologists Dr Bharat Dalvi and Dr Maulik Parekh. Dr Parekh said that this procedure is carried out only in three hospitals in the country and Reliance Foundation Hospital has performed the procedure on six patients so far including Gujarathi, who is the oldest patient in India.