Pune’s first inter-state heart transplant
In a first, 6 organs were donated by deceased; green corridor ensures heart reaches airport in 6.5 minutes.
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A green corridor was created between Ruby Hall Clinic and the airport for smooth transportation of the organ.
In just six-and-a-half minutes, Pune traffic police created a green corridor on Tuesday afternoon where the heart of a 23-year-old youth, who died in a road accident, was rushed from Ruby Hall Clinic to the airport and flown to AIIMS, New Delhi. The recipient was a 24-year-old youth, who was suffering from a heart ailment for the last four years.
This is the second such case of a heart being taken for transplant from Pune, but the first in the city where six organs were donated by the deceased. This is also the first case of inter-state heart transplant from Pune.
Dr PK Grant, chief managing trustee of Ruby Hall Clinic, said that while the heart was flown to AIIMS, the liver was transplanted in a 64-year-old woman at the hospital itself. While one kidney was used in a transplant operation for a 49-year-old man at Ruby Hall, the other was sent to Aditya Birla Hospital, said Dr Sanjay Pathare, medical director, Ruby Hall Clinic. Two corneas were also donated.
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According to hospital authorities, the youth was travelling in a jeep with his friends when the accident occurred near Alandi. He was admitted to Ruby Hall Clinic on April 20, where he succumbed. Dr Aarti Gokhale, central coordinator of the Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC) said that this was the second case of a heart being sent for transplant from Pune.
The first case was that of a 42-year-old woman whose heart was sent for a transplant to Mumbai in August last year. “Initially, we had asked Mumbai ZTCC to check if they have requirement for a heart. However, since one patient was unfit and the other a foreign national, we asked the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation if there was a requirement. The team from AIIMS then left from Delhi this morning,” Gokhale said. In Pune, there have been 12 brain-dead donors this year and a total of 17 kidney transplants and 13 liver transplants.
Dr Milind Hote, professor at the cardiovascular thoracic surgery department at AIIMS, told The Indian Express that a team of surgeons headed by Dean Dr Balram Airan, had boarded a flight from Delhi to reach Pune at 11.20 a.m. The process to retrieve the heart was taken up at 2.30 pm and within six-and-a-half minutes, they reached Pune airport to board a 3.25 pm flight. “The surgery was started at 5.30 pm and got over at 9.30 pm. The patient is stable,” Hote said.
DCP (Traffic) Sarang Awad said, “As per requisition, a green corridor was created between Ruby Hall Clinic and the airport for unhindered transportation of the organ. The distance of 7.8 kilometres was covered in six-and-a-half minutes. The successful green corridor was the result of planned and coordinated efforts of the traffic divisions.” Awad added that two assistant commissioners of police, one police inspector, four assistant inspectors and 32 traffic cops were part of the effort.
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