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Mumbai Hospital Transplants Two Hearts Within Four Hours, Thanks To Timely Green Corridors

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Image used for representational purpose.
stockce via Getty Images
Image used for representational purpose.

So many lives can be saved when hospitals, civic authorities and social workers work together with concentrated co-ordination, as was proved several times over on 17 August.

Thanks to smoothly executed green corridors and two back-to-back heart transplants, a Mumbai hospital was able to save the lives of two critically-ill patients within a matter of four hours.

In the first case, the heart was harvested from a 22-year-old woman who was declared brain dead in Pune's Ruby Hall Clinic after sustaining a head injury. Her husband consented to donate her heart, lungs, liver and kidneys, saving five lives. The recipient of her heart was a 24-year-old college student suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, who had been on the wait-list for a heart transplant since May this year. A green corridor was created by the Pune and Mumbai traffic police, making it possible to transport the heart to Fortis Hospital in Mumbai at 3:36 am on Thursday morning, covering a distance of 143 km in 109 minutes, reported The Times of India.

In the second incident, the donor was Shobha Chavan, a 45-year-old domestic worker in Mumbai, who was declared brain dead after being hit by a local train while crossing the tracks. Her husband, too, consented to donate her heart, liver and kidneys, reported Mumbai Mirror. Her heart was transported to Fortis Hospital with the help of a green corridor, covering 18 km in 16 minutes. The recipient was a 58-year-old man suffering from cardiomyopathy. He was on the 'Super Urgent List' for heart transplants.

But these two weren't the only lives saved that day. Thanks to timely consent given by the donors' families, several people around the country received a second lease of life after receiving other organ transplants.

While the 22-year-old donor's liver and kidneys were given to patients in Pune itself, her lung helped save a life in Gleneagles Global Hospital in Chennai, reported The Tribune. One of her lungs was harvested at around 1:30 am and rushed to Pune airport by road. The flight carrying the organ and the transplant team landed in Chennai airport at about 4:30 am. The lung was then transported to the hospital in 15 minutes and successfully transplanted into a patient suffering from end-stage lung disease.

The Chennai hospital claims this case is the longest distance haul of a donated lung in the country.

In the case of Shobha Chavan, one of her kidneys was sent to Jaslok Hospital, the other was given to a patient at MGM hospital (where Shobha was admitted), and the liver was sent to Wockhardt hospital in Mumbai.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.