Hope in the fast lanes of Bengaluru

BENGALURU : With 13 green corridors created by Bengaluru Traffic Police over the last two months, transport of organs for transplant is becoming a smoother affair in the city. Last week, a heart was transplanted from one city hospital to the other within 35 minutes of clamping from the donor’s body. What would have otherwise taken around an hour-and-a-half from Old Aiport Road to Bannerghatta by road, took much less due to the green corridor created by the hospital and the traffic police. 

“Green corridors are created in quick succession at traffic segments that are freed up for the ambulance. There is no red light. If the organ arrives from another city to Bengaluru, one road segment is blocked from the airport to Sadahalli gate. Only when the ambulance is approaching point B, is the usual traffic from point A allowed to move,” said Dr Murali Chakravarthy, Director, Clinical Affairs, Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta. After there is a suspected death, doctors conduct an apnea test to check for brain death, after which the  Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka is informed regarding the organ availability. They then contact hospitals that have put up matching requirements. 

“Each organ has a ‘cold ischaemic time’ – the duration once blood circulation to that organ is stopped. To slow down metabolism, it is placed in ice. Before the energy gets depleted from the organ, it has to be placed within the recipient’s body. Any delay would mean the organ will not work even after transplantation,” Dr Julius Punnen, Senior Consultant, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Narayana Health City hospital, explained, adding that hospitals normally inform the traffic police control room six hours prior to the transplant so that a pathway is charted out for the ambulance.

Heart is the more commonly transported organ, with more local demand, Chakravarthy said. “With the heart, the stipulated time is four hours from the time it is clamped to stop blood circulation. Only once the donor’s heart reaches the hospital, do we remove the recipient’s heart,” he added. 

“Transporting a heart from a hospital in North Bengaluru, for instance, to our hospital in Hosur would take three hours in usual traffic. Factor in other time requirements, such as the 15 minutes needed to take out the heart, and doctors are left with little time to perform the actual transplantation,” Punnen said. This is where green corridors become crucial, even when the distance is 60-70 km. 

To ensure hassle-free movement of the ambulance, the traffic police personnel involved enroute remain in constant touch over walkie-talkies. “We have a list of all the hospitals and their nodal contact persons. Either the control room alerts us when a need arises, or we get the calls directly,” P Harishekaran, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said. “In a fraction of a second, we inform the constables on the field through walkie-talkies. They are informed of the ambulance’s arrival time.”

Traffic policemen are stationed every half a kilometre, and they divert the regular traffic to other roads. “As training is given to them specifically on how to create green corridors, no time is lost in charting out the route map,” Harishekaran added.