New Delhi, Sep 14 (IANS) The Delhi Police created a 23 km green corridor here to enable an ambulance ferry in 19 minutes a heart harvested from a brain dead patient in Bengaluru that a team of doctors transplanted onto a 63-year-old man suffering from heart failure, thereby giving him a new lease of life.
The green corridor, manned by 70 police personnel, ensured that no vehicles could come ahead of the ambulance as it travelled between New Delhi's IGI Airport and the Fortis Escorts Heart Institute (FEHI).
"We were certainly happy to help. All the necessary help that we could was provided. About 20 of our policemen were deployed and 50 from the traffic police," Deputy Commissioner of Police, Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) Sanjay Bhatia told IANS.
The patient was diagnosed with DCM (Dilated Cardiomyopathy) EF-20 per cent and had been admitted to the hospital multiple times with features of heart failure. He was suggested for 'Advance Heart Failure Treatment', according to Vishal Rastogi, Head, Heart Failure Programme, at the FEHI.
"A heart transplant is a critical surgery where timing is a key factor. We have a window period of five hours in which we had to retrieve the heart from Bengaluru, transport it to FEHI Delhi and perform the heart transplant surgery," said Z.S. Meharwal, Director, Cardio Vascular Surgery, FEHI.
The heart had been harvested from a 15-year-old male who had been declared brain dead at Fortis Hospital Bengaluru.
Once the donor's heart was available, FEHI's Heart Failure Clinic team flew to Bengaluru to retrieve the heart.
"Our retrieval team coordinated very closely with the transplant team at FEHI. We are grateful to NOTTO (National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation) for their continuous support for organ donation and transplant programme," Meharwal added.
