Quick Move of Harvested Organs from Madurai to Chennai
Cadaver transplantation is now common in Tamilnadu, South India and has a better donation rate in the country.
Every time a donation happens, it is only because of the large-heartedness of the family, the co-operation of the police, and the skill of the medical professionals.
Family members of R. Muthupandi, a 36-year-old load man from Kovilpatti in Thoothukudi district, decided to donate his organs after he was declared brain dead due to the injury in a road accident.
‘Doctors from Chennai flew to Madurai to harvest the donated lungs for a patient with pulmonary fibrosis waiting for a donor for 4 months.’
On being informed of the availability of organs, a team from Fortis Malar Hospital flew to Madurai to harvest the lungs of the brain dead donor, and flew back on a commercial flight to Chennai on November, 16. "The flight landed at 2.19 p.m. and we were at the hospital by 2.36 p.m.," a hospital official said.
Starting at Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Madurai, at 11.35 a.m. on Wednesday, an ambulance, which was carrying Muthupandi's heart and lungs and accompanied by three police vehicles, reached the airport within 16 minutes. The harvested organs were immediately airlifted to Chennai for transplant to patients waiting in two hospitals there.
On a request from Apollo Hospitals, Madurai City Traffic Police created a "green corridor" to facilitate smooth transport of the vital organs. As soon as the high-speed ambulance and police vehicles reached the airport, the boxes containing the harvested organs were shifted to the waiting aircraft, which left for Chennai within two minutes.
A senior doctor at the hospital said a liver and one kidney had been donated inside the hospital while the other kidney went to a beneficiary in Madurai Kidney Centre. The eyes were donated to Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai.
The recipient of the lungs was a 45-year-old woman from abroad who had pulmonary fibrosis. "She had been waiting for an organ here for four months. We finished the transplant around 4 p.m. and she is doing fine now," said K.R. Balakrishnan, director, cardiac sciences, Fortis Malar.
Source: Medindia