When 57-year-old Rajendran Pillai of Kollam was declared brain dead at a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday morning, his relatives gave the nod for organ donation.
His liver was transplanted into 47-year-old patient in Kochi at a private hospital on Sunday.
The liver was allocated to the patient admitted at Aster Medcity by Mrithasanjeevani, the Kerala Network for Organ Sharing (KNOS). The organ was brought to Kochi in an Air India flight at 7 a.m. on Sunday by a medical team under Dr. Mathew Jacob, multi-organ transplant surgeon, Aster Medcity. He led the 8-hour surgery. The patient is stable after the surgery and under observation in the ICU, he said.
Dr. Rommel S., senior specialist, hepato-pancreato-biliary surgeon and Dr. Sangeeth P.S., senior specialist, anaesthesiology, were part of the medical team.
Mrithasanjeevani is an online transplant registry of patients on the waiting list for kidney, liver, heart and pancreas transplants initiated by the State government.
Dr. Jacob said in a statement that the cooperation from airport authorities, CISF, and Air India staff made it possible for the box containing the liver to be taken inside the passenger cabin.