Mumbai : A 53-year-old man from Katargam, Surat received a new lease of life after the family of a 54-year-old brain dead patient gave consent for donation of their kin’s heart. The recipient who was suffering from Dilated Cardiomyopathy was on the waiting list for two months and heart transplantation was his only shot at a second chance of life. With the help of a green corridor, the donor heart reached Fortis Hospital in Mumbai in one hour and 17 minutes on Tuesday. With this, the city has reported 18 heart transplantations so far this year since August last year.
The family of the brain dead patient was counselled by the president of NGO Donate life, following which, the family willingly agreed to donate their kin’s heart, kidneys, liver and corneas. After receiving the consent for the heart, the airport and the traffic authorities of Surat and Mumbai came together wherein they swiftly laid out the roadmap and the flight map. Following this, the donor heart left Mahavir Hospital at 11.35am and reached Surat Airport at 11.48 am. It was then transferred into a chartered flight that took off at 11.54 am which landed at Mumbai Airport at 12.33 pm and headed out in the stand-by ambulance at 12.34pm.
The Green Corridor was laid out from the Domestic Airport (Gate No 8) to Military Road-Santacruz-Chembur Link Road-Chedda Nagar to Eastern Express Highway-Airoli Junction and finally the heart reached Fortis Hospital at 12.52pm which was immediately rushed into the Operation Theatre. Dr Anvay Mulay, chief of cardiac transplant team at Fortis Hospital said, “The recipient’s condition was rapidly deteriorating and a transplant surgery was absolutely essential to save him. This surgery was only possible because of the courageous donor family. We have concluded the surgery and the patient is now stable. He has been moved to the Intensive Care unit (ICU) and will be kept under observation for the next 48-72 hours.”
Dr S Narayani, zonal director of Fortis Hospital said, “This is the fifth time, we have received the donor heart from Gujarat and their support to the heart transplant programme is very encouraging. We hope to build more such channels across the neighbouring states.”
