A First for the State of Nagpur-an Interstate Heart Transplant

Coming up in the field of organ donation, Nagpur had its first ever interstate heart transplant after the family of Mr. Amit Awasthi who was declared brain dead was willing to donate his organs.

Mr. Awasthi, a 40-year-old man was first admitted to Alexis Hospital, Koradi road from there he was shifted to Neuron Hospital on 24th October 2017. Dr Chandrashekhar Pakhmode, Director of Hospital told that the patient was in a very critical condition when he was admitted. As his blood pressure was very high it caused him to have severe bleeding in his brain.

‘Organ donor gave a new lease of life for four patients.’

On 26th October, Dr. Pakhmode put a shunt on the patient to reduce the intracranial pressure but that could not save the patient as the bleeding had gone to the brain stem.

The relatives were explained about the patient being brain dead. Once they accepted the situation, the family was counselled that they have the opportunity to donate Mr. Awasthi's organs and save the lives of many organ failure patients who are on the wait list. Within ten minutes the family agreed to donate the organs of Mr. Awasthi. The patient was then shifted to Wockhardt hospitals and took the patient there.

The patient and his wife have a 7 year old daughter, his parents Mr. Vinod Kumar Awasthi and Ms. Ratnawali Awasthi were also by his side. Four patients were blessed with a new lease of life after Mr. Awasthi's heart, liver, eyes and skin were harvested unfortunately his kidneys could not be used.

The heart was harvested by Dr. Sameet Pathak, Cardio-Vascular Thorasic Surgeon (CVTS), Wockhardt Hospitals, Dr Milind Hote, CVTS at AIIMS, New Delhi, and Dr. Awantika Jaiswal, Cardiac Anesthetist, Wockhardt Hospital. The retrieval took 3 hours for both the organs. Dr. Anurag Shrimal, multi-organ transplant surgeon at Wockhardt Hospitals along with Dr. Narute, Liver transplant surgeon, Sahyadri, Pune retrieved the liver.

The heart was flown to AIIMS, New Delhi and the liver to a hospital in Pune by flight. Ms. K Sujatha, Centre Head, Wockhardt Hospitals informed that in 4 minutes thanks to a green corridor that was created from Wockhardt Hospitals, Shankar Nagar to the Airport the organs were able to reach the respective flights under the guidance of Mr. Ravindra Pardesi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) (Traffic). A green corridor is when police personnel manually operate the street signals to avoid peak traffic to tackle medical emergencies.

The liver was transplanted to a patient from Jaipur, who was suffering from cryptogenic decompensated liver disease. The skin was retrieved by Dr Sameer Jahagirdar from Orange City Hospital and Research Institute (OCHRI) and stored at the Rotary Skin Bank and while the corneas were taken to Madhav Netra Pedhi eye bank.

Dr Ravi Wankhede and Dr Vibhawari Dani, the secretary and the president of the Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC) made certain that the heart was not wasted and approached National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO).

Dr Ravi Wankhede Secretary, ZTCC pointed out that this donation was the 24th Cadaveric Organ Donation under the ZTCC- Nagpur region. Transplant Coordinators play a very important role coordinating a successful donation. Dr. Rajesh Gade along with Bhavna Methwani are the senior transplant coordinators to great efforts to bring the patient from Neuron Hospital to Wockhardt Hospital at Shankar Nagar square. MSW Veena Wathore newly appointed by the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO) helped the hospital with the support of ZTCC.

Another success was that Wockhardt Hospitals hit a century in the transplant field, as they have successfully done more than 100 transplant surgeries in their Nagpur hospital.

But one must never forget that it is all thanks to the donors and their families and the fact that they were so strong during their time of grief.



Source: Medindia