Efforts are being made to introduce helicopter ambulance service in Tamil Nadu, Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said.
“We are making efforts to introduce heli ambulance service to transport hearts to transplant centres that do not have airports nearby,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the first international hands-on workshop on ‘Tracheal Reconstruction, Heart and Lung Transplant Surgeries’ organised by Frontier Lifeline Hospital and Frontier Mediville Research and Training Centre on Wednesday. He said in the government sector, heart transplants were first performed at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Chennai. In a phased manner, the transplantation was introduced at the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai and at the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital, Omandurar Estate.
Speaking at the inauguration, he said a team of government doctors would be sent for training in Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) to bring about the facility in government hospitals. He pointed out that Tamil Nadu has been pioneering in efforts in organ transplantation. K.M. Cherian, chairman of Frontier Lifeline Hospital, spoke on the difficulty in taking up research in the country.