Green corridor: Heart travels 37 km in doctor's car

Bengaluru: A green corridor was created again to transfer a heart to Narayana Health City at Bommasandra from BGS Global Hospital Kengeri on Thursday. However, this time the heart was not brought in an ambulance, but in a car to overcome the traffic mess. The distance of 37 km was covered in 28 minutes.

The car started at 4.19 pm and reached its destination by 4.47 pm. Although the car did get stuck in traffic jams for sometime on Nice Road, it finally reached the venue on time. Sanjana, an 18-year-old engineering student was the donor. She hailed from Hassan and had met with an accident, on February 21, near KRS, Mysore. She was admitted to a hospital in Hassan with a severe brain injury. She failed to respond to treatment and was declared brain dead. Doctors counselled her family members for organ donation and her father agreed.

Accordingly, Sanjana was shifted to neuro critical care at BGS Global Hospital from Hassan on February 25 around 12:15 am. She was re-evaluated and declared brain dead, as per the protocol, and the organ retrieval happened subsequently. Her heart, liver, kidneys and eyes were donated to five people.

The heart was transplanted successfully on 30-year-old Shivan M., who works as a supervisor at a saree showroom and hails from Ooty. On July 12, 2014 he had a massive heart attack and hospitalised. When he was brought to Narayana Health City, his heart was functioning only 20%. Doctors at Narayana Health had recommended that he go for a heart transplant and he was registered with Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka for transplantation in November 2015.

Shivan was brought to Narayana Health City for a heart transplant and a team of doctors led by Dr Julius Punnen, rushed to BGS Hospital on Thursday to retrieve the heart. There were certain medical complications, which delayed the process a bit.

Later at 4.17 pm the heart was retrieved and taken in Dr Punnen’s car, while an ambulance and a police jeep led the green corridor. The liver and one kidney were simultaneously transplanted on 44-year-old women from Bengaluru at BGS Hospital on Thursday. The eyes were sent to Narayana Nethralaya on Thursday morning to two different patients. Another kidney was sent to Victoria for a different operation.