Highlights
- 17-year-old accident victim's heart donated to a 43-year-old man
- Heart transported through green corridors in Surat and Mumbai
- Patient's condition stable after the transplant
The heart of a 17-year-old road accident victim was flown in a chartered flight from Surat to Mumbai in 75 minutes to save the life of a 43-year-old man from Rajasthan's Alwar.
The patient at Fortis Hospital was suffering from Dilated Cardiomyopathy and needed a new heart which became possible after the Surat youth's family consented to donate his heart, as well as his kidneys and liver.
With meticulous planning involving airport authorities at Surat and Mumbai, besides traffic and police officials, the heart travelled the 269-km distance in 75 minutes.
The heart was harvested and transported from Sunshine Global Hospital in Surat to Fortis Hospital in Mulund in the latter's fifth inter-state heart transplant in recent months.
The airports and traffic police in both cities swiftly prepared a 'green corridor' and the donated heart left the Surat hospital at 10:33 am, reaching the local airport in five minutes.
It was taken onboard a chartered flight which took off at 10:41 am and landed in Mumbai at 11:20 am and was out of the airport in a ready ambulance at 11:31 am.
Again, another 'green corridor' enabled it to traverse the heavy late morning peak traffic areas of eastern and central Mumbai to reach the hospital at 11:47 am.
The patient's condition was described as stable in the ICU.