Indian Air Force Airlifts Heart, Gives 39-Year-Old Air Warrior New Lease Of Life

The Indian Air Force on Wednesday executed another life-saving mission by airlifting a live human heart in an IAF AN-32 aircraft from Nagpur to Pune to be transplanted in a recipient admitted to the Army Institute of Cardio Thoracic Sciences (AICTS).

The humanitarian mission is the latest in a long line of such endeavours that have been undertaken by the IAF, Army and Navy over the years.

The live heart was moved from Wockhardt Heart Hospital in Nagpur to Air Force Station Sonegaon through a green corridor that was created by the civil administration, under the guidance of DCP Traffic Police Chetana Tidke, according to the IAF.

“The live heart was flown to Pune expeditiously by the Air Force. The flying time was around 90 minutes,” said an IAF official.

According to a statement released by Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC), Nagpur, the vital organ has been donated by a 31-year-old homemaker, Shubhangi Manish Gannyarpawar, while the recipient is a 39-year-old IAF Air Warrior, according to the Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre, Nagpur.

Gannyarpawar, a mother of a one-and-a-half-year-old girl, was declared brain dead on July 20 when she was taken to hospital following severe headache. Tests at the hospital showed that there was bleeding in the brain.

The live-saving mission comes two months after the IAF airlifted a medical team along with a donated heart from Sawai Man Singh Medical College in Jaipur to the Army Hospital in Delhi. The air force team had said that the IAF team first airlifted the medical team to Jaipur and then to the national capital. The timely execution of that operation by the IAF gave a new lease of life to a woman.

In February this year, a man's heart was airlifted from Delhi to Pune in a special IAF plane.