Delhi Man Gets New Life

A 34-year old man in New Delhi got a new lease of life after police created a 3.6-km green corridor to help a hospital carry a human heart in 3.28 minutes. Diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy -- advanced heart failure -- the patient at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute in Okhla received the heart harvested from a brain dead patient at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital at Sarita Vihar on Sunday.

The donor was a 30-year-old man declared brain dead after suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disorder in which the body's immune system attacks the nerves.

"A heart transplant is required when all other treatment fails," Z.S. Meharwal, Director at Fortis' Cardio Vascular Surgery, said in a statement.

"Optimum timing of surgery (heart transplant) is very important in these patients for good outcome before multi-organ dysfunction sets in," he added.

The surgery went well and the patient was stable, he said.

In India, some 210,000 patients are waiting for transplants out of which only 8,000 patients are able to get a donor. In spite of the Human Organ Transplant Act 1994, cadaveric transplant are still limited in number.