Nanded man’s heart saves Kharghar patient

Mumbai: The heart of a 35-year-old man from Nanded was flown to the city on Wednesday to give a new lease of life to a Kharghar resident. The 44-year-old man was on the waitlist for over a month and desperately needed a healthy heart. A green corridor created by the traffic police facilitated the heart’s transfer from airport to the hospital, a distance of 19km, in less than 20 minutes.
The transplant carried out at Fortis Hospital in Mulund became possible after the family of Sudhir Rawalkar, a radio broadcaster with AIR, consented to donate his organs.The victim of a road accident was rushed to Government Medical College in Nanded, where he was declared brain dead on Tuesday evening. While Rawalkar’s heart was shared with Mumbai, his liver was allocated to Ruby Hospital in Pune and his kidneys saved two lives at Aurangabad.
Nanded college dean Kananbala Yelikar said this was the fir-st time a public medical college has contributed to the cadaver donation programme from the region. “The family was aware of organ donation and what their contribution meant. We have put up posters outside ICUs and operation theatre.” This year, the city has witnessed 47 cadaver donations and 28 people have undergone heart transplants. tnn