Tamil Nadu doctors waste 17-year-old boy's heart during cadaver transplant

MADURAI: In a startling incident in the State that ranks number one in the country in organ donation, the heart of a 17-year-old boy was wasted during cadaver harvest process at Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) here on Sunday. The reason? The doctors of a hospital in Chennai, who retrieved the lungs, apparently had to catch their return flight and were not in a position to wait for an official nod for another private hospital to retrieve the heart.  

On Sunday, the organs of B Gopinath (17), a resident of Karur and a class XII student who was declared brain dead, were harvested at GRH. Son of Balakrishnan, a painter, Gopinath suffered severe head injuries in a road accident that happened on Friday. The accident happened at a time when his board examination is scheduled to be held the next day. He was admitted to GRH for the same night.

However, Gopinath was declared brain dead on Sunday morning. Following this, his organs were harvested at the hospital on Sunday night. While his eyes and one kidney were retained by GRH, the other was sent to Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital. His liver was received by another hospital and his lungs by Gleneagles Global Hospital in Chennai.

If officials are to be believed, during the cadaver harvest procedure, the heart of the young donor went waste, for the doctors of Gleneagles Global Hospital, who took a unilateral decision, cross-clamped the heart without an official nod, rendering it useless.

Speaking to New Indian Express, Dr P Balaji, Member Secretary of Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN) said, “The Gleneagles Global Hospital in Chennai initially gave their consent to accept the heart and lungs of the boy for an Indian patient. However, they withdrew their consent in the eleventh hour citing that the patient had developed fever, forcing us to initiate the reallocation process to allocate the donor’s heart to another patient who needed it. With limited time in hand to harvest the heart, the reallocation process led us to Fortis Malar Hospital in Chennai, which needed the heart for an international patient.”

As per the norms, an international patient can become the recipient of an organ in India only after all the hospitals in the country, registered with National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), give their nod stating that their domestic patients who are in the waiting list for an organ are not in need of the organ.

“It was during the process of allocating the heart to an international patient in Fortis Hospital that the team of doctors from Gleneagles Global Hospital arrived at the GRH. Stating that they were getting delayed for their flight to Chennai, they made a unilateral decision and retrieved the lungs by cross clamping the heart, rendering it useless,” said Balaji.

According to doctors, by procedure, the lungs can be retrieved only after retrieval of the heart. Cross-clamping of the heart means that the aorta is clamped using an aortic cross-clamp which prevents the flow of oxygenated blood from the heart to the rest of the body, leading to the heart becoming dysfunctional.

Following the incident, an inquiry has been instituted by TRANSTAN against the hospital.When Express contacted Gleneagles Global Hospital, they refused to comment on the issue.