The heart of a 42-year-old brain-dead man from Mumbai gave a new lease of life to a 53-year-old Delhi resident on Tuesday. The live heart was transported from Mumbai to Delhi — a distance of 1,178 km — in just two-and-a-half hours.
A green corridor was created from the airport to Fortis Escorts Heart Institute (FEHI) in Okhla. The ambulance was able to cover the 23 km journey in just 23 minutes.
Declared brain dead
The donor, who suffered serious injuries in a road accident, was declared brain dead despite the best efforts of doctors at Global Hospital, Mumbai. The family members were immediately counselled about donating the heart of the deceased.
Once the doctors got approval, the live heart was taken out and airlifted from Mumbai at 3.15 p.m. The plane landed at the Delhi airport at 5.05 p.m.
The live heart was transported by a team of doctors led by Dr. Z. S. Meharwal, director of Cardio Thoracic Vascular Surgery, FEHI.
The female recipient was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, which required a heart transplant. As of 9 p.m., the transplant surgery was still going on.
“A heart transplant is a critical surgery where timing is key. It is commendable that a live heart was retrieved and transported within such a short span of time. We remain indebted to the family of the donor who in an hour of grief and loss decided to save a life,” said Dr. Meharwal. There is a team of almost 40 people under the ‘advanced heart failure’ program who work on the protocol from heart retrieval to heart transplant.
Only 720 cadaveric donations (from deceased donor) took place in India last year. In a nation of over a billion people, that is not even one donor in a million, noted a release issued by FEHI.