Youth cardiac patient gets heart of 25 yr old deceased man

New Delhi: A 24-year-old man has received a new lease of life after undergoing a transplant surgery for a heart that was donated to him by a person who died in a road accident here, hospital officials said.

The organ was ferried from Fortis Hospital at Vasant Kunj to Fortis Escorts Heart Institute (FEHI) on July 25 night through a 14 km-long green corridor in a span of 18 minutes passing through south Delhi's busy Outer Ring Road.

"According to the hospital-wise data decided by the NOTTO (National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation), the heart was allocated to FEHI, one kidney to Fortis Hospital Vasant Kunj, one kidney to BLK Hospital and the liver was given to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital," the Fortis Hospital Group said.

"Starting at 8:43 pm, the Fortis Organ Retrieval and Transplant (FORT) unit transported the heart via Outer Ring Road (on July 25) from Fortis Hospital at Vasant Kunj to FEHI at Okhla, via Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, IIT Flyover, Malviya Nagar, Nehru Place and Modi Mill, reaching by 9:04 pm," the hospital group said in a statement.

The recipient, suffering from congestive heart failure, underwent a life-saving surgery that went on for four hours and the patient is recovering well.

Meanwhile, Dr Rajeev Sood, Director, Urology, Robotics & Kidney Transplantation performed a kidney transplant on a 59- year-old man at Fortis Vasant Kunj.

"The patient had end-stage renal disease and was on dialysis for the past three years. The transplanted kidney has provided him a new lease of life and is generating urine since the time of transplant. The patient is doing well and recovering well in the post-op ICU," he said.

"The organ donation rate in the country has increased over 10-fold over the last 5 years from 0.05 per million population to 0.8 per million in 2016.

"People from all walks of life are increasingly saying yes to organ donation," said Dr Avnish Seth, Director, Fortis Organ Retrieval and Transplant (FORT).

Sandeep Guduru, Facility Director, Fortis Hospital at Vasant Kunj said, "This is the third deceased organ donation at our hospital."