Heart ferried by helicopter from Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi for transplant

The helicopter hired by Kerala govt for the State Police made its debut trip on Saturday, with a heart harvested from a 50-year-old woman who was declared brain-dead.

In the midst of the flurry of activity to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Kerala, the heart of a brain dead patient from Thiruvananthapuram was brought to Kochi by a helicopter rented out by the State Government, on Saturday evening.

The Pavan Hans helicopter bearing the heart and the medical team arrived at the helipad of Hotel Grand Hyatt here at 3.45 pm, after a 40-minute journey.

A medical team led by cardiac surgeon Jose Chacko Periapuram of Lissie Hospital here flew to Thiruvananthapuram in the morning, to retrieve the heart from the 50-year-old brain dead woman patient who had been admitted to KIMS Hospital in the capital city.

The heart will be transplanted into a 49-year-old woman from Kothamangalam who was diagnosed with ischemic cardiomyopathy and was under treatment at the hospital here for the past three months.

The recipient had registered her name with Kerala Network for Organ Sharing (KNOS). It is the coordinating agency for Mrithasanjeevani, Kerala's deceased donor organ transplantation programme.

The helicopter was used for the life-saving cause at a time when Opposition was crticising the government over the high rental charges. ₹1.44 crore was fixed as the monthly rent for the helicopter, which was primarily used for anti-Maoist operations and during natural disasters.