Green corridor helps heart reach Fortis Escorts Heart Institute from AIIMS Delhi in 14 mins

New Delhi: A green corridor was recently created from AIIMS Delhi to Fortis Escorts Heart Institute in Okhla to facilitate the transportation of a live heart, with the help of the Delhi Traffic police.

The distance of about 5.5 km was covered within 4.25 minutes for transportation of the heart which takes almost 13-15 minutes in a normal routine. The efforts and assistance provided by Delhi Traffic Police were appreciated by the administration of Fortis Hospital.

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According to Shweta Singh Chauhan, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic, South East District, Delhi, Fortis Hospital informed police that a human heart was to be transported to the hospital from AIIMS for transplantation into a patient.

To facilitate this important transportation, a green corridor was created from AIIMS to Fortis Hospital, New Friends Colony, New Delhi, and the organ was transported successfully. The doctor's team who created the green corridor was led by Dr. ZS Meharwal, executive director and head of Adult Cardiac Surgery, VAD and Heart Transplantation Programme; Dr. Vishal Rastogi, head, Heart Failure Clinic at FEHI, and Dr. Naveen Saraf, director, Cardio Thoracic Vascular Surgery at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, Okhla.

The National Organ Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) had alerted the team of doctors about a possible Cadaveric heart donor (brain dead) in AIIMS Delhi, following which they left at 5.48 pm to retrieve the heart from the medical college and reached Fortis at around 6.02 pm, reports the Hindustan Times.

The heart belonged to a 55-year-old brain-dead woman who was admitted to AIIMS. Her family decided to donate her heart to a 19-year-old boy who has been suffering for the last 1.5 years. Dr. Meharwal had been treating the 19-year-old patient, whose condition was reportedly serious. He was taken for heart transplant surgery after receiving the donor's heart.

Kishan, whose mother-in-law's organ was donated told The New Indian Express, "I lost my mother to an accident in Lucknow. Back then, the doctors had approached me for organ donation and I convinced my family to donate her organs. Over the years, I've felt happy that my mother has saved many lives even in her demise. Today, I lost my mother-in-law but I encouraged my family to donate her organs."

Commenting on organ donation awareness, Dr. Aarti Vij, Head, ORBO (AIIMS) said, "This once again underlines the awareness activities regarding organ and tissue donation."

DCP Chauhan said it was a challenging task as Ring Road, Captain Gaur Marg, CV Raman Marg, and Mathura Road experience heavy volumes of traffic, and these roads are used extensively by commuters. But keeping in view the emergency and humanity the challenge was accepted and the green corridor was provided successfully to the ambulances carrying the human organs, she added.

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