Pune: A brain-dead army veteran who met with an accident at Madhya Pradesh gave a new lease of life to a 29-year-old soldier’s wife in Pune. The heart was brought and transplanted within five hours from MP to Pune.
In a first of its kind in Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS), the Army Organ Retrieval and Transplant Authority (AORTA) coordinated an inter-hospital transfer of a heart for transplant on February 11.
Brain dead 40- year- old veteran
The organ donor was a 40-year-old army veteran who had sustained severe injuries after he was hit by a two-wheeler on February 8 in Bhind, Madhya Pradesh. He was rushed to a local civil hospital where he was put on life support and was brought to Army Hospital, Research and Referral ( AHRR), New Delhi the next day where he was declared brain dead.
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The family of the veteran voluntarily opted for multiple organ donation, said the transplant Coordinator with AORTA at AHRR.
Western Air Command in action
A 29-year-old wife of a serving soldier, suffering from a weak heart, was waiting for a suitable heart organ donor for the last six months at Pune based Army Institute of Cardio Thoracic Sciences (AICTS).
The Medical Branch of Southern Command coordinated the transfer of the donated heart from AHRR with help of Western Air Command.
Inter-service coordinated action
In an inter-service coordinated action, carried out with military precision, in little over four hours, the organ was retrieved by Heart Surgery team at AHRR and it was transported to Pune through an Indian Air Force Aircraft.
Race against time
Head of the Cardiothoracic Surgery at AICTS and his team of surgeons and anesthesiologists transplanted the heart in record time.
This was AICTS 'second heart transplant in the last two weeks.The previous organ was brought on January 30 by AICTS team from Indore.
