In a major surgery, doctors at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute transplanted the heart of a 30-year-old IT professional, who was declared brain dead, on a 16-year-old boy, giving him a new lease of life.
The recipient was suffering from a condition called Idiopathic Dilated Cardio Myopathy, an end stage heart disease with a poor heart function and was advised heart transplantation two months ago with symptoms of severe breathlessness.
According to Dr Z S Meharwal, Director and Coordinator, Cardiovascular Surgery, FEHI and Chief Operating Surgeon for the case, when they received information of a matching donor heart, the recipient was immediately admitted and prepared for the procedure, while another team of doctors went to FMRI Gurgaon to assess the donor heart.
To enable an uninterrupted passage for the heart, a 'Green Corridor' was created to cover the 32 kilometers stretch between FMRI and Fortis Escorts Heart Institute.
This was the first ever Green Corridor created in Delhi, NCR, through the seamless collaboration between hospitals in the city, and the Gurgaon and Delhi Police.
The convoy of ambulances covered the distance in 29 minutes and travelled at a speed of over 100 kmph. A police escort vehicle was deployed to clear the route and ensure seamless travel on both sides of the geographical divide.
"The recipient was put on the heart lung machine as soon as the heart reached the hospital. The most important thing in a heart surgery is the time between retrieval and implantation, a crucial period when the donor heart is without oxygen.
"We removed the diseased heart and implanted the donor heart within 50 minutes. The total time, from retrieval to implantation took 100 minutes. The heart started beating soon after it was implanted. The patient was taken off the ventilator the next day and has made an excellent recovery.
The patient is now on supportive drugs, in addition to drugs that will prevent infection and rejection," explained Meharwal.
The donor of the heart, a 30-year-old IT professional, had suddenly collapsed in the washroom, at a surprise party planned by his colleagues at his workplace in Gurgaon on December 30 to celebrate his mid-term promotion.
He had suffered intra-cranial bleeding and was rushed to a local hospital. When he could not be revived, he was moved to FMRI. Despite best efforts of doctors, he was declared brain dead on January 3, at 8:48 am. The family, based in Hyderabad took a noble decision to donate the organs and saved six valuable lives.
Dr Ashok Seth, Chairman, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, said, "There are approximately 46 lakh patients who suffer from heart failure in India and 10 per cent of these die every year. The new heart started beating at 5:30 pm, in exactly 2-hours and 7 minutes after its retrieval."
"We aim to expand this collaboration to airlift donor hearts from other cities for transplantation at FEHI, to bridge the availability factor. We hope that this landmark event will make more people pledge their organs for donation so patients dying of heart failures can live, Dr Seth said.
He said in India, the majority of organ transplants are carried out with living donors.
"In our country, the majority of organ transplants are carried out with living donors. This limits donation to one kidney or a part of the liver. Transplantation of the heart, lungs, pancreas and small intestine is possible only with donation following brain death.
"A robust deceased organ transplant program could give a new lease of life to millions of patients with advanced degrees of organ failure. We hope that we can make the Delhi-NCR 'Corridor of Life' a routine process that can save several thousand lives," said Dr Avnish Seth, Director Fortis Organ Retrieval and Transplant (FORT) said.
