A heart harvested from a young brain-dead student and flown in from Hyderabad saved the life of a woman from Maharashtra at a hospital in Chennai on Saturday.
The heart, which arrived in the city on a chartered flight at 9.19 a.m. reached Fortis Malar Hospital in Adyar in just 13 minutes, thanks to a green corridor created on the route.
Cardiomyopathy
According to K.R. Balakrishnan, director, cardiac sciences, Fortis Malar Hospital, the woman, who is in her fifties, was admitted around three weeks ago with cardiomyopathy – a condition, where the heart muscle is abnormal, making it harder for the heart to pump and deliver blood to the rest of the body.
On Thursday evening, an alert came in from Hyderabad about a 20-year-old student who was declared brain dead.
Doctors at Fortis Malar immediately sought a chartered aircraft to fly them into Hyderabad.
Finally, a flight came in from Kochi, but by the time it arrived at the Chennai airport, it was nearly 2 a.m.
A team of four doctors, two nurses and a transplant coordinator flew out around 3 a.m., Dr. Balakrishnan said.
In 26 minutes
Once the heart was harvested, it was rushed back to the airport.
Thanks to the city police in Hyderabad, a green corridor was provided and the donor heart was transported to Shamshabad airport from Yashoda Hospital, Secunderabad in just 26 minutes.
“We were cutting it a little close. A heart is only viable for about four hours, and by the time we reached our hospital it had been about three hours and forty minutes. But we managed to transplant it, and the surgery was successful,” said Dr. Balakrishnan.
He said arrangements in Hyderabad were excellent. “It was very smooth and very efficient even at the crowded airport. The administration there did everything possible to make this happen," he said.
Volleyball player
Twenty-year-old Abhijit, the donor was an accomplished volleyball player and an engineering student from Hyderabad.
A resident of West Marredpally, Abhijith, along with his friends, was travelling in a car on the city outskirts at Kompally on the night of Thursday, July 30.
The youngster received grievous injuries in the car accident. The liver, corneas and kidneys were distributed to hospitals in Hyderabad.
The organ arrived in time thanks to the green corridor provided in Hyderabad
