New Delhi: In a first of its kind, a heart was flown from Delhi to Chennai in record time to save a life.
Kanchan Lal (name changed), who worked in the administrative department of the Indian Air Force, New Delhi, met with a road accident on Wednesday. Having sustained grievous head injuries, he was rushed to the Research and Referral (R & R) Army Hospital in Delhi’s Cantonment area. Battling for life, he was declared ‘brain-dead’ by the doctors, a few hours later.
A doctor at the R & R hospital said: “This provided a rare opportunity for his family to save the life of another patient, who was suffering from end-stage organ failure and was in the hospital in Chennai. Fortunately, the family members agreed.”
The transplant coordination team at Gleneagles Global Hospital (GGH), Perumbakkam, Chennai, received an alert about the availability of a suitable donor in Delhi, from the Transtan, the apex body that governs organ transplantations in Tamil Nadu.
The biggest challenge, however, was to cover the distance of 2,184km — a flying time of more than two-and-a-half hours between the two cities. (A donated heart must be implanted into the recipient within four hours of its retrieval). This was made possible by the coordination team in Tamil Nadu that worked in tandem with the Delhi team where different government and private entities came forward to support the noble cause.
Dr Sandeep Attawar, Director of Heart Failure and Transplant, Gleneagles Hospital, Perumbakkam, said, “There was a very short window of opportunity and this was something never tried in India before. The doctors at the Army Hospital were kind enough to harvest the organ and ensure all necessary parameters to transport the organ safely.”
The R & R Army Hospital rushed the organ to the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, with the support of the Delhi Traffic Police, who created a ‘green corridor’ for the smooth transit all the way to the airport. The organ was taken aboard a Jet flight, which took off at 4.12pm from Delhi and landed at the Chennai International Airport at 6.50pm. From there, the Chennai Traffic Police, already on alert, managed its transportation to the Gleneagles Hospital within 36 minutes (at 7.26pm).
Dr Attawar and his team of doctors successfully implanted the donated heart.
Earlier, a successful attempt of flying a donated heart was made from Aurangabad in Maharashtra to Chennai in February.
