Mumbai : In a first in the State, a green corridor created between Surat and Mumbai helped a 58-year-old man suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy in Fortis Hospital, Mulund to receive a heart from a 45-year-old brain-dead man from Mahavir Hospital in Surat within 1 hour 32 minutes on Saturday night. The ambulance with donor heart which left Mahavir hospital at 10.36 pm reached Fortis Hospital at 12.08 am covering 269 kms across the state lines. With this, Fortis hospital has conducted its fifth successful heart transplantation with the help of coordinated efforts between two states which made possible a successful heart transplant surgery in the city. After receiving consent of the donor’s family, the Airport and Traffic authorities came together to swiftly lay out a Green Corridor between Surat and Mumbai.
Following this, a roadmap and flight map was immediately put in place, the donor heart left Mahavir Hospital at 10.36 pm reaching Surat airport at 10.45 pm. Upon being transferred into a chartered flight that took off at 10.50 pm, which then landed at Mumbai Airport at 11.43pm, the Green Corridor from Domestic Airport (Gate No. 8) to Military Road-Santacruz Chembur Link Road-Chedda Nagar to Eastern Express Highway-Airoli Junction and finally to Fortis Hospital, Mulund, helped the heart reach Fortis Hospital at Mulund at 12.08 am.
Elaborating on the process and formalities for creation of a green corridor between the two states, Dr S Narayani, zonal director of Fortis Hospital, said, “The information of availability of a donor heart was provided to us by NGO Donate Life which works towards the cause of organ donations. Since Gujarat doesn’t conduct heart transplantations, the NGO approached our hospital and we matched
the blood group, weight of the donor and recipient which turned out to be positive for transplantation. Therefore we started completing the formalities of issuance of No-Objection Certificate (NOC) and coordination with the traffic authorities and our medical team at the hospital.” The surgery which was conducted by Chief of Cardiac surgery, Dr Anvay Mulay and CVTS Surgeon, Dr Sanjeev Jadhav, concluded at 3.45 am and the patient was then moved to the ICU by 5 am. Dr Mulay said, “We need more such courageous families to come forth and help save and enrich more lives. The surgery has been successful; the patient is now stable and will be kept under observation for the next 48-72 hours.” Nilesh Mandlewala, president of Donate Life, who helped counsel the donor’s family and ease the process, said, “90 percent of patients in the waiting list die without getting an organ; this statistic highlights the abysmal donor–recipient ratio in our country. Each one of us can save eight lives after our death, it’s important that we help to save lives of others by pledging to donate our organs after death.”
