On Monday evening, at 6.45 p.m., a green corridor was created to transport a heart from Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital to Fortis Malar Hospitals in Adyar.
With a patrol vehicle leading the ambulance, it took 13 minutes 22 seconds, four minutes longer than the planned nine, to transport the vital organ, across 16 traffic signals through Kamaraj Salai.
“Due to the many speed-breakers en route, we ran a little later than planned. All the traffic signals were kept open and police personnel were deputed to manage vehicles. At some intersections, cross traffic was also stopped for the ambulance to pass through,” a senior police officer said.
The donor, 27-year-old Loganathan from Maduranthakam, Kancheepuram, was in a road traffic accident on June 11. He was taken to the Chengalpattu government hospital, from where he was transferred to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on June 12. On June 16, he was declared brain dead, doctors said.
“The family decided to donate all the organs and the harvesting began in the afternoon,” a senior hospital official said.
The heart and both the kidneys went to Fortis Malar Hospitals, while the liver is being given to Christian Medical College, Vellore, the skin to Right Hospitals and the eyes to Government Ophthalmic Hospital, Egmore, said officials.
K. G. Suresh Rao, director, head of cardiac anaesthesiology at Malar Hospitals, said the heart arrived at 7.05 p.m. and was transplanted into a 21-year-old woman from Mumbai. “She arrived a few weeks ago with severe dilated cardiomyopathy. We evaluated her and found her fit for a transplant. She became very sick last week and has been on medication. On Monday evening, we transplanted the heart and it is now beating,” he said.
