In a remarkable initiative by the Delhi Police, an ambulance with a live heart could reach the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), from the Delhi airport in a record time of 12 minutes. This more than 18 kilometers distance was covered through a fast-moving green corridor provided by the Delhi Police on Thursday.
The heart was flown in from Vadodara and took 12 minutes to reach the hospital from Terminal 2 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
According to the Delhi police, after they received a request from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), for a fast-moving green corridor from the airport to the AIIMS Hospital, special arrangements were made to avoid any waste of time amidst peak rush hours in the National Capital.
The Delhi traffic police swung into action and immediately deputed officers and a green corridor was planned.
AIIMS had informed the Delhi police that a human heart under ventricular assist device was being flown from Vadodara to Delhi for heart transplant surgery in the premier hospital and there was no time for wastage.
The traffic inspectors piloted the ambulance throughout the route of 18.5 km starting from Terminal-2 to AIIMS. It took 12 minutes for the vehicle to reach its destination, which would otherwise take anything between 35-40 minutes, the officer added.
A heart transplant is the surgical replacement of a person's diseased heart with a healthy donor's heart wherein the donor is either dead or brain dead. Since the performance of the first human heart transplant in 1967, this surgery has changed from an experimental operation to an established treatment for advanced heart disease.
Once a donor heart becomes available, a surgeon from the transplant center goes to harvest the donor heart. The heart is cooled and stored in a special solution while being taken to the recipient. The surgeon will make sure the donor heart is in good condition before beginning the transplant surgery. The transplant surgery will take place as soon as possible after the donor heart becomes available.