matter of 6 hours.
A total of 2650 kms were covered by the Transplant co-ordination team to bring two donated hearts from Aurangabad, Maharashtra in the noon and from Cochin, Kerala in the evening.
The transplant team under Dr KR Balakrishnan performed back to back heart transplantation surgeries.
In the early hours of February 26, 2016, Sathish (Transplant co-ordinator) received a call from the Aurangabad Government Hospital where 20-year-old Ganesh Dhokth was declared brain dead. His parents had agreed to donate his organs so that many others can live and he will also live through them.
Sathish and Dhanraj of the transplant co-ordination team immediately made plans to proceed to Aurangabad along with Dr Murali and Dr Mohan. The doctors’ team retrieved the heart at 12:30 pm and they flight took off from the airport at 12:50 pm. The heart reached Chennai airport at 2:14 pm and it reached the hospital exactly at 2:30 pm, where the transplant team of Dr KR Balakrishnan successfully implanted the heart to an 8 year old patient.
Meanwhile, the team had already made arrangements to proceed to a private hospital in Cochin, where 40-year-old Mr Vibin had been declared brain dead. As per his family’s wishes his organs were also donated. The same team of doctors and the transplant team reached Cochin and proceeded with the donated heart to Chennai at 6:15 pm. The heart reached Fortis Malar at 8:10 pm, where yet again the team of doctors transplanted the heart to a 37-year-old man.
