The heart of a brain-dead person from Kochi was brought to Chennai in less than two hours on Sunday and transplanted to a 51-year-old man at Rela Hospital here.
A release by the hospital said the heart was harvested from a 30-year-old man, who was declared brain-dead on Saturday night after a road accident.
With his family agreeing to donate his organs, his heart got allocated to the patient at Rela Hospital as per organ transplant protocols. Other organs were given to recipients in Kerala.
The recipient at Rela Hospital was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition that decreased the heart’s ability to pump blood. He was on the organ registry waiting for a transplant since February this year, the hospital said.
A team of four people from the hospital led by Dr. Arumugam, heart and transplant surgeon, flew to Kochi on Sunday morning to harvest the organ.
The organ was taken to Kochi airport with the local police forming a green corridor. Soon after it reached Chennai airport, the ambulance brought the organ to the hospital in five minutes through the green corridor formed by Chennai city police, the release said.
A team led by Sandeep Attawar, programme director, Heart and Lung Transplant at the hospital, performed the transplant surgery.
