Lungs of brain dead person were sent to Chennai by air from here on Monday afternoon for transplantation to a needy patient at the Global Hospital.
The lungs were harvested from a brain dead person, Allapati Suryanarayana (29) of Chittivalasa, a teacher, at the Care Hospital here along with the liver, two kidneys and two corneas under the Jeevandaan programme of the AP State government. The lungs were taken in an ambulance along with police escort to the airport for transportation to Chennai by a commercial flight. It took about 20 minutes for the ambulance to reach the airport where it was quickly put on the flight and allowed as hand luggage of Global Hospital’s coordinator Sankar Ganesh. Generally traffic flows smoothly on the city roads and to make it doubly sure that there are no hindrances, the ambulance went via the convent junction and port connectivity road.
According to medical superintendent of Care Hospitals here Mohan Maharaj, both lungs would be transplanted to a single patient at the Global Hospital, Chennai. It takes about eight hours for transplanting the lungs and the procedure would commence as soon as the lungs reached the hospital in Chennai, he said. All organs have to be harvested at the same time and it was done in this case keeping in view the time needed to transport the lungs to Chennai.
The lungs were sent to Chennai after it was found that they were not required in AP after NTR University of Health Sciences Vice-Chancellor and Appropriate Authority for Cadaver Transplantation of the Jeevandaan programme of the AP, T. Raviraju, verified with hospitals in AP and Telangana. The heart of brain dead person was not in a fit condition for cadaver transplantation. The liver and one kidney are being transplanted to two different patients at the Care Hospital here and one kidney to a patient at the Apollo Hospital here. Both corneas of the brain dead patient were recovered by the Mohisin Eye Bank.
Suryanarayana is a native of Gara mandal of Srikakulam district. He reportedly met with an accident near Chittivalasa around 2 a.m. on Saturday last and was brought to Care Hospital here where he was declared brain dead on Sunday morning. A double declaration that he was brain dead was made at 4 p.m. and later his family members were convinced to donate his organs.
Zubeda Hamid from Chennai adds:
At Global Hospital in Chennai, the recipient, a man, had been prepped for surgery since 3.30 p.m. As soon as the lungs arrived at 4.30 p.m., the surgery, a complex, long procedure began and is expected to be completed late on Monday night.
“Only the lungs of our patient were in bad shape. His heart was fine. He has been waiting for more than three months for a lung transplant,” Dr. Balaji said.
To be transplanted to a needy patient at Global Hospital, Chennai.
