At 5 a.m. on Sunday morning, the route leading from Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital to Apollo Hospital on Greams Road was cleared to transport a heart and lung from a brain dead patient for transplantation.
“On Saturday night, the Commissioner of Police received a request for us to clear traffic along the route, and we were on alert since 1 a.m. The travel time between the two hospitals was four minutes,” Deputy Commissioner of Planning S. Sivanandan said.
The donor, Bharani Kumar (49), was admitted to the multi-speciality hospital on the Omandurar Estate three days ago for a brain aneurysm. On Saturday, he was shifted to GH, where he was declared brain dead at around 6 p.m. His family agreed to donate his organs, A. Elango, Resident Medical Officer said. According to transplant coordinator M. Jayapal, the heart and lungs of the donor were given to one patient at Apollo Hospital, and the liver was given to Global Hospitals, while the GH and Stanley Medical College received a kidney each.
Joy Verghese, consultant hepatologist at Global Hospitals said the liver obtained from Mr. Bharani Kumar was split and used to help a one-year-old and a 12-year-old boy. “On the day, we also performed another liver transplantation with organs received from another donor,” he said.
In another case, Meenakshi (24) from Madurai, who met with a road accident sustained critical injuries and was transferred to Global Hospitals in Chennai for neurological care, and, on Saturday, was declared brain dead. Her family agreed to donate her organs, and her liver and a kidney were transplanted, Dr. Verghese added.
