Where harvesting heart has become a habit

The heart of brain-dead Pandit Shivaraya Baje, 30, was airlifted from Bengaluru to Secunderabad on Saturday. A green corridor was created yet again for the ambulance carrying the heart from the Victoria Hospital to the HAL airport.

Baje’s heart, which was retrieved late in the morning at the Pradhana Mantri Swastya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) Speciality Hospital at Victoria Hospital campus, was airlifted to be transplanted into Padma, 46, from Khammam in Telangana, who was admitted to Yashoda Hospitals in Secunderabad. She had been suffering from severe heart-related problems and had serious issues with the pumping of the heart.

An expert team of six from PMSSY Speciality Hospital, headed by Dr Nagesh, along with doctors from Hyderabad Global Hospitals performed the retrieval. Baje was declared brain-dead at 4.30 am on Saturday, following which the Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka for Transplantation took the family’s consent and the procedure began. In all, it took just around one and a half hours for the heart to reach the recipient from here.

Baje, a resident of Hosur Road, met with an accident at the Hosur Road Junction on Thursday. “He was grievously injured after being knocked down by a bus when he was trying to cross the road,” said Shivananda Patil, Baje’s uncle.

“He was first taken to Victoria Hospital, from there to Nimhans and to Fortis. Later, he was brought to PMSSY hospital, where doctors said that he would not survive for long. Later, doctors here told us that we could donate his organs and we approved the same,” Patil said.

The donor hails from Sadalapur in Sholapur, Maharashtra, and worked as a safety officer with Japan Metal Systems Private Limited in Bengaluru. Baje is survived by his younger brother, mother and father, who is suffering from a long-term illness and is on dialysis.

The donor’s liver will be transplanted into another patient in HCG cancer care hospital. While one kidney has been donated to a patient at St John's Medical College and Research Institute, the other will be given to a recipient at the Institute of Nephro Urology.

Green corridor

It took just 11 minutes 33 seconds for the ambulance carrying the heart to cover a distance of 13.4 km from Victoria Hospital to HAL Airport, from where the heart was transported to Secunderabad in a chartered flight.

Babu Rajendra Prasad, DCP, Traffic (East) said, “The ambulance left Victoria Hospital at 12 pm. Traffic was halted at every junction while the ambulance moved.” A patrol jeep accompanied the ambulance. A total of 18 officers including three assistant commissioners of police, six inspectors and eight sub-inspectors and several traffic constables were deployed.

The route

Victoria Hospital-City Market-Hudson Circle-Queen’s Statue-Anil Kumble Circle-Mayo Hall-Trinity Junction-Old Airport Road-HAL Airport.

Hurdle-free way in Secunderabad

All it took was two minutes and 45 seconds for the paramedics to bring Baje’s heart from Begumpet airport to Yashoda Hospital. The special plane carrying the heart touched down at Begumpet airport at 1.30 pm and the city traffic police created a green corridor (via Begumpet-Somaji-guda Road) for the ambula- nce, by stopping the traffic. 

The donor’s heart was under the care of heart transplant surgeon Dr A G K Gokhale of Yashoda Hospital, from the moment it was harvested till it reached the operation theatre. The transplant took almost five hours by a team led by Dr Gokhale. Hospital sources said that Padma, the recipient could be discharged in about seven days.