Precise coordination helps inter-state organ donation

KOCHI: The Kerala Network for Organ Sharing or Mrithasanjeevani of the state government did its job with precision to make the first inter-state organ donation happen on Tuesday.

After it was alerted on the willingness for organ donation by Pranav’s father, KNOS searched its list of potential recipients and when it was found that there were no takers for heart from the state, KNOS nodal officer Dr Noble Gracious also consulted heart transplant surgeon Dr Jose Chacko Periyapuram.

Then, he contacted Dr Amalor Somanathan, convener of Tamil Nadu Network for Organ Sharing. Dr Somanathan then verified his list and picked Fortis Malar Hospital where two patients matched the blood group of the donor and were in need of combined transplantation of heart and lungs.

The organs were finally transported by an Embraer aircraft from Kochi. “An organ can be taken across the border only when it is confirmed that there are no takers within the state. So we had to do that first,” said Dr Gracious.

Dr Jose Chacko said that in the case of heart-lung combined transplantation, up to six hours can be taken while in the case of heart transplantation alone, it has to be done in four hours.

“When issues exist for both heart and lung together, both are together transplanted. Usually the disease comes as a hole in the heart and in some patients, the blood flow (shunt) through the hole reverses its direction (reversal of shunt). At that time, the pressure in the lung would be very high, which condition is called pulmonary hypertension. In such a situation, transplanting heart alone will not suffice. That is the time when doctors advise simultaneous heart and lung transplantation. If you transplant only the lung, it has to be done within 10 hours. When heart and lung are transplanted together, heart need to beat within six hours because the heart and lung came from the same body and have been working together for years as a single unit,” Dr Jose Chacko said.