Heart & Lungs Of 19-Year-Old Brought To City In 4 Hours, Transplanted In 24-Year-Old From Maharashtra.
In an act that combined empathy , expertise and extreme coordination, the heart and lungs of a 19-year-old were flown from a Kochi hospital and transplanted in a 24-year-old patient, from Maharashtra, in a Chennai hospital on Tuesday . The transplant of the organs of the donor, who was declared brain-dead after a bike accident, marked the first interstate transplant for Kerala and the third for Chennai. Traffic police in Kochi and Chennai created green corridors to ensure the organs reached the donor within four hours of them being harvested. The process began minutes after the donor was declared brain-dead at 10pm on Monday , and his family conveyed to Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi their willingness to donate his organs. Kerala Network of Organ Sharing (KNOS) sent out an alert to hospitals. “There were no eligible patients in Kerala,“ said KNOS nodal officer Dr Noble Gracious. The alert went to the Tamil Nadu organ registry and Fortis Malar Hospital in Chenna confirmed it had three patients on its list A 12-member Fortis team including four doctors led by Dr K R Balakrishnan director cardiac sciences, Dr K G Suresh Rao, Dr Murali and Dr S K Chowdhury took a flight at 6.15am to Kochi. “They left with the organs at 11.58 am,“ said Lakeshore managing director Dr Philip Augustine. Kochi city police created a green corridor, and they covered the 34km stretch from Nettoor to Nedumbassery in 30 minutes.
Airport formalities were cleared in a record five minutes, and the aircraft was on its way to Chennai where the patient was readied for transplant.
“We got the message for a green cor ridor at noon,“ said a Chennai traffic police officer. The organs left Chennai airport at 2.11pm and reached Fortis at 2.20pm. The distance of 12km was covered Lake in nine minutes. The recipient was a 24-year-old man who had been on the waiting list for six months. “He had a congenital heart disease which eventually took a toll on his lungs as well,“ said Dr Balakrishnan. “We started the transplant at 2.30pm and completed the procedure by 5.15pm. It was a challenging procedure, but it was successful,“ said Dr Suresh Rao, chief anaesthetist at Fortis.
Donor’s family donated five of his organs including liver, kidneys and small intestine.
