Green Corridor In Mumbai Enables Transport Of Heart In 14 Minutes, 2 Transplants In 5 Days

Mumbai witnesses its 2nd transplant where a donated heart was transported from Navi Mumbai through a green corridor in 14 minutes to a patient waiting at Mulund during the rush hours of morning. This was the 2nd transplant witnessed in Mumbai 4 days after its first in 47 years. The heart of a 63-year-old former BARC officer K Narayanankutty Nair, who was declared brain dead after suffering head injuries in a road accident, was received by a 26-year-old toll plaza administrator at Fortis Hospital in Mulund, where the transplant surgery took place.

For heart transplants, the donated heart must be transplanted within 4 hours. At 10:26 am, the harvested heart from Vashi's MGM Hospital was transported to the Mulund Hospital by 10:40 am, following which the transplant was carried out within 3 minutes. The 19km journey which usually takes one hour to travel was covered in just 14 minutes. This was possible due to a green corridor with red-light free access set up by 10 officers and 115 personnel of Navi Mumbai and Mumbai police.

The donated heart started beating in the recipient’s body by 4:30pm. "We weren't expecting to conduct two heart transplants in a week," said heart transplant surgeon Dr Anvay Mulay from Fortis. Another heart was transplanted into a 22-year-old Anwar Khan, earlier that week. He said, both the heart transplants are doing well.

The recent recipient of the heart is a resident of Nerul, whose heart failure was diagnosed in 2012, needed an urgent heart donation after being hospitalized last week. "It seems like a miracle that my younger brother got a heart. We are praying that all goes well," said his brother Dilip.

This miracle was made possible when Nair's family decided to donate his eyes, heart, kidneys and liver as he had wanted. Also the family was wishing to donate his pancreas but there is no pancreas donation program in the city at that moment. On August 2nd, Nair did not recover consciousness after he was knocked down by a speeding biker in Chembur. After obtaining his family’s consent, his organs were harvested since then.

Nair's heart and a kidney were given for patients registered at Fortis Hospital, Mulund, another kidney to a kidney failure patient registered at Hinduja Hospital, Mahim and his liver was donated to a 57-year-old liver cirrhosis patient registered at Global Hospital in Parel. Doctors from Laxmi Eye Hospital retrieved the corneas as well, as per the organ sharing formula of the Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC).

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The two heart transplants could motivate other brain dead patients' families to donate the heart as well, said a ZTCC official. India’s first heart transplant was performed in Mumbai in 1968, due to lack of awareness heart transplants found no takers all these years. But now there is better coordination between the governmental bodies the officials feel. "Cooperation from the traffic police helped conduct the heart transplant," said Dr S Narayani of Fortis Hospital.

For the green corridor the Navi Mumbai policemen on the night shift stayed back to help, they were coordinated with Mumbai traffic police by the heads. A pilot vehicle for the ambulance from Vashi to Airoli, by the Navi Mumbai team. From there the Mumbai traffic police's pilot vehicle took the lead while the Navi Mumbai team followed the ambulance. Traffic personnel posted along the stretch kept one lane free for the ambulance, moving away other vehicles, even as signals were kept on flash mode. The staff at the Airoli toll naka ensured no time was wasted; six staffers were ready and let the vehicle through as fast as possible.

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Source-Medindia