A heart transplant is not an easy operation by any standards. It requires great skill and precision – and also a very tight watch on the clock.
In fact, a heart must be transplanted within six hours of harvesting from the donor.
And for the first time in India, a heart was flown down from New Delhi to Chennai for a transplant and the doctors managed this challenging feat in record time.
An Indian Air Force personnel met with a road traffic accident on Tuesday and sustained severe head injuries in Delhi. He was rushed to the R&R Army Hospital in New Delhi for treatment. On Wednesday morning, the patient was declared brain dead and his family decided to donate his organs.
Meanwhile, a patient at Gleneagles Global Health City in Chennai needed a heart. As the doctors at both hospitals communicated with each other, they decided to embark on something they have never done before.
The heart was harvested just after 2 pm, and from that moment on, it was a race against time.
And then, the organ was transported to Chennai on a Jet Airways flight.
The heart reached Chennai at 6.50 pm. The Chennai traffic police then made sure that the heart reached the Global hospital from the airport in 30 minutes.
By 8 pm on Wednesday, the transplant had started. The surgery went on for a few hours and the heart was successfully re-circulated. The patient is on ventilator support right now, and will be sent to a normal ward in a few days.
(The story was first appeared on The News Minute and has been republished with permission.)
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