Indore, Jan 4: A 16-year-old girl from Mumbai got a new lease of life on Sunday after the heart of a 20-year-old brain dead woman was successfully transported to a private hospital in Thane within two hours after it reached Indore airport via ‘green corridors’ in less than 10 minutes.
Earlier in the day, the heart and liver harvested from Sonia Chouhan, admitted to a private hospital at Choithram crossing here, were rushed in about eight minutes via ‘green corridors’, created twice with the help of district administration and traffic police, to the city airport.
While Chouhan’s heart was flown to Mumbai, her liver was charted out to Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Delhi.
In Mumbai, another ‘green corridor’ was created from the domestic airport there to Fortis Hospital in suburban Mulund for speedy transportation of the vital organ.
“Retrieved by Dr Anvay Mulay, head of cardiac transplant team, Fortis Hospital, Mulund, from the donor at Choitaram Hospital, the donor heart was transported to the hospital at Mumbai in 1 hour 58 minutes covering 546 kms,” Fortis Hospital stated in a release in Thane.
It said the team of doctors conducted a successful heart transplant surgery on the 16-year-old female recipient, a resident of suburban Vikhroli, who was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which heart’s ability to pump blood is decreased.
Chouhan was declared brain dead after she suffered a severe head injury from a fall at her home on Saturday.
“The donor was moved to Choitaram Hospital, Indore, for evaluation and assessment. Her heart reached Indore airport at 7.24 AM and shifted to a flight which landed at Mumbai’s domestic airport at 8.49 AM.
“An ambulance, which was kept on a standby for swift transfer of the donor heart, left the airport at 8.51 AM and reached Fortis Hospital, Mulund at 9.07 AM, through a ‘green corridor’ from the domestic airport to Fortis Hospital. The organ was moved straight to operation theatre at 9.08 AM,” the release added.
The recipient, whose name was not stated in the release, is stable and will be kept under observation for the next 48-72 hours.
Meanwhile, in Delhi, Doctors at Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) said the liver arrived in Delhi at 9:55 am and was transported via a ‘green corridor’ from Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal-3 to ILBS in 11 minutes with dedicated traffic police support.
The liver was transplanted into 48-year-old man from economically-weaker section who was suffering from a liver disease known as cryptogenic cirrhosis.
The doctors said that this was the 20th case of cadaveric liver transplant at ILBS and the first deceased donation liver transplant in 2016.
Dr Shiv Sarin, Director ILBS, said the liver transplant procedure was carried out without any cost to the patient and stressed on the importance of organ donation by saying there was long list of patients waiting for their lives to be saved.
Also stressing on the need for greater organ donation, Fortis Hospital zonal director Dr S. Narayani said, “Yet another inter-state transplant has saved a life, this time of a young one, the first patient in the PeadCard category”.
Dr Vijay Agarwal, head of paediatric cardiac surgery, Fortis Hospital, said, “This inter-state transplant is indeed a breakthrough; with the channel opening up for PeadCard heart transplant surgeries, these little angels see a ray of hope.
This success story will help young patients suffering from end-stage organ failure”.