The heart and lungs of a 23-year-old brain dead youth were harvested at Christian Medical College, Vellore, and transplanted into a young woman at a Chennai hospital
S. Panneer Selvam, a resident of Vanjur village, Senur post, met with an accident on January 9 when he was going in a two-wheeler. A mason by profession, Selvam was admitted to CMC on January 10. Doctors declared him brain dead at 3.08 a.m. on January 11. With his family members consenting to donate his organs, his heart, liver, kidneys, lungs and eyes were harvested and donated to various hospitals.
According to Suresh Rao, head, cardiac anaesthesia and critical care at Fortis Malar Hospital, a 20-year-old woman from Tamil Nadu, who had severe pulmonary hypertension and right heart failure, received the heart and lungs of the youth. “She had been repeatedly hospitalised for the past one year and had been on continuous medication,” he said. The organs arrived in the city by road around 6 p.m. and the surgery was successfully completed around 10.30 p.m., he said.
The youth’s one kidney was donated to MIOT Hospital. Another kidney, liver and eyes were used at CMC.
