K. Suresh, a 25-year-old brain-dead patient from Khammam district, gifted life to three persons on Monday. His kidneys and liver were donated by his family members. The organs were harvested at the Metro Super-specialty Hospital here and allotted to patients at three different hospitals in the city.
However, the heart and lungs were not harvested as they had no takers.
A team of doctors led by neurosurgeon and Managing Director N.V. Srinivas took care of the organ harvesting and completion of formalities.
Dr. G. Krishna Murthy, Chief Transplant Coordinator of A.P.’s Cadaver Transplantation Programme Jeevandan, told The Hindu that one kidney was sent to Sunrise Hospital and the other one to Arun Kidney Centre and liver to Manipal Hospital at Tadepalli in Guntur district. A leading hospital in Chennai placed its request for the heart and lungs but could not make arrangements for shifting them, due to some constraints. The organs were not needed even in Telangana. The Government General Hospital at Guntur where the State’s first heart transplantation was done just two days ago, did not express its readiness either.
Dr. Murthy said heart and lungs remain intact for three to six hours, liver six to 12 hours and kidneys up to 48 hours. “As the cold ischemia time [time between placing the organs in ice and transplantation] runs out, their functioning gets compromised.”
“As the cold ischemia time runs out, organs functioning gets compromised.”
