In a first for the city, the heart of a 43-year-old Khopoli resident, who was declared brain dead, was flown to Chennai on Thursday where a 61-year-old patient from Lebanon was awaiting a heart transplant.
While Mumbai has received hearts from Gujarat, this is the first time it has sent one to another city. A green corridor was created to transport the heart from Apollo Hospital to Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport (Terminal 1) in 40 minutes.
The donor, Chetan Tailor, a shopkeeper, was admitted with brain haemorrhage to Navi Mumbai’s Apollo Hospital on September 22. Doctors declared him brain dead at midnight on Wednesday. Dr. Prasad Mugalikar, Medical Director, Apollo Hospitals, said: “The family was approached and counselled for organ donation. They agreed.
Lone match
Owing to unavailability of a matching recipient in Mumbai or elsewhere in the State, the heart was allotted to Fortis Malar Hospital in Chennai.
Dr. S.K. Mathur, who heads the Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee, said: “If no suitable patient is found, it is then forwarded to the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization. Later, the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization and National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation come into the picture. In this case, the organ was finally allotted through NOTTO.”
Dr. Mathur said earlier a liver had been sent to from Mumbai to another State for transplantation, “but this is the first time a heart was sent from Mumbai.”