A heart was flown in from Coimbatore to Chennai late Monday night, where it was transplanted on to a five-year-old Russian boy.
The donor, a 24-year-old man, had met with a road accident while he was on a two-wheeler and had been admitted to Dr. Muthu’s Super Speciality Hospital, Coimbatore, with a severe head injury and multiple fractures. A CT scan revealed severe a brain injury. Despite intensive treatment, there was irreversible dysfunction in the brain. On November 27, he was declared brain dead. The man’s family voluntarily came forward to donate his organs.
While the liver was sent to a patient at GEM hospital, Coimbatore, the kidneys went to KG Hospital, Coimbatore and the heart was brought to Chennai by a commercial flight. The heart landed at 11.10 p.m., and arrived at the hospital by 11.38 p.m. “The child had been at the hospital for a month. He had biventricular cardiomyopathy and iatrogenic Cushing syndrome, in which the body’s muscles become weak, the bones brittle and the skin fragile,” said K. R. Balakrishnan, director, cardiac sciences, Fortis Malar Hospital. He added that the surgery was successfully completed.
