Heart travels 20km in 12 minutes for transplant

NEW DELHI: A heart travelled 20km in 12 minutes flat for a transplant on Saturday morning. It was to be transplanted into a patient who suffered heart failure.

NEW DELHI: A heart travelled 20km in 12 minutes flat for a transplant on Saturday morning. It was to be transplanted into a patient who suffered heart failure.

HT Image

The traffic police had created a green corridor for the rapid transit of the organ between hospitals.

Experts removed the heart from the body of a 45-year-old brain-dead patient at Vasant Kunj Hospital around 6.30am. The organ reached Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon via National Highway 8 around 6.42am.

The police had brought the unconscious donor to the emergency ward of Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj. He suffered a head injury in a road accident near Chattarpur on Wednesday. However, the neurosurgery team could not revive him and he was declared brain dead on Saturday.

After the hospital specialists counselled the victim’s family members, they agreed to donate his organs.

The hospital informed the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), a government body that coordinates the procurement and distribution of organs and tissues across India. A police clearance was also sought as it was a medico-legal case.

Abrar Ali Dalal, facility director, Fortis, Vasant Kunj, said, “For this facility, this is the first organ donation from a deceased person. We thank the donor’s family for making such a noble gesture in their hour of grief.”

“It was also the clockwork precision of all medical teams that made this cadaveric donation a reality,” he said.

According to NOTTO protocol, each hospital has to inform the government body about a possible organ donation. Thereafter, the body decides on the organ distribution among hospitals based on a list of recipients.

“The organ donation rate in the country has increased tenfold over the last five years from 0.05 per million population to 0.5 per million. With NOTTO fully functional and the regional and state machinery working in coordination, the donation rate will see a further improvement,” said Dr Avnish Seth, director, Fortis Organ Retrieval and Transplant.