A brain-dead person’s heart in Kochi was taken to Chennai in under two hours to rescue a 51-year-old man in a private hospital from a life threatening situation on Sunday, reported the Indianexpress.com. The heart was transplanted to the man, working for an IT company in Chennai, who was diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM). The hospital stated that a 51-year-old man has been on an organ registry waiting list since earlier this year in February, as reported by Indianexpress.com.
Donor was a 30-year-old male from Kochi who had suffered a traumatic brain injury in a road accident in his hometown. He had been admitted to a private hospital on October 19 after the accident. But, he failed to respond well to the treatment given to him and was declared brain dead Saturday night.
Hospital has also assured that the family of the deceased was counselled and they consented to the family before donating the youth’s organs. Tamil Nadu Organ Registry was alerted regarding the incident which was later allocated to Rela Hospital as per standard protocol. The rest of the organs of the deceased have been allocated to hospitals in Kerala.
A four-member team from the hospital along with Heart and Lung Transplant Surgeon Dr Arumugam flew to Kochi on Sunday morning to get the donor’s organ. The team reached Chennai in a little over an hour. The team left with the heart via a green corridor created by the Kochi police team and then flew to Chenna. Another green corridor ensured the heart’s speedy transport to Rela Hospital where the transplantation was to be carried out by a team of doctors. The transplantation was headed by Dr Sandeep Attawar, Programme Director of Heart and Lung Transplant at the hospital.