25km in 20 minutes: Corridor of life helps save three lives
On Tuesday night, the Delhi Traffic Police created a 25km green corridor to facilitate the oldest cadaver donation at AIIMS Trauma Centre.
On Tuesday night, the Delhi Traffic Police created a 25km green corridor to facilitate the oldest cadaver donation at AIIMS Trauma Centre.
The police cleared traffic and helped in the transportation of the body from Orchid hospital in Janakpuri to the AIIMS Trauma Centre in just about 20 minutes around Tuesday midnight.
The organs from the body of the 77-year-old man, Vir Bhan Choudhury, helped save three lives and restored the eyesight of two others.
Choudhury was a retired Delhi government school teacher. Permission was sought and received by the authorities from his wife and five daughters and son-in-law before the whole process was set into motion.
“He (Choudhury) was admitted to Orchid hospital in Janakpuri with breathing problems on February 14 and was declared brain dead at the hospital on February 16. The representatives from Dadhichi Deh Daan Samiti contacted us and convinced us for organ donation at the trauma centre. The body was shifted to AIIMS on Tuesday night and they started the process. The body was handed over to us at 1:30pm the next day (Wednesday),” said Prem Makkar, son-in-law of the donor.
The family gave consent for the transplant of liver, both kidneys, both corneas and the heart. But due to the past history of CABG (coronary artery bypass graft) and the age of donor, the heart and heart valves could not be retrieved.
“This was the fifth cadaver donation at AIIMS this year and the oldest at the institute. The liver was donated to Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) and transplanted to a 30-year-old man at the institute.
The kidneys were transplanted to 48-year-old and 50-year-old male patients at AIIMS. The corneas have been preserved at the AIIMS eye bank,” said Dr MC Misra, director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
"We conducted two tests to declare brain stem death at 1am and 7am on Wednesday. The body was taken to the operation theatre at 9:30am for retrieval of organs. The body was handed over to the family at 1:30pm on Wednesday," said Rajeev Maikhuri, organ transplant coordinator, Organ Retrieval Banking Organisation, AIIMS.