Hyderabad: The heart transplant performed on a critical cardiac patient early this month, with the cadaver heart transported through Hyderabad Metro Rail, was successful and the heart recipient is recovering fully, doctors of Apollo Hospitals said on Monday.
For the first time in the history of organ transplantation, anywhere in the world, metro rail was used to transport the organ on February 2. A green corridor was specially created by Hyderabad Metro Rail and Hyderabad Police, for the cadaver heart to reach Apollo Hospitals at Jubilee Hills, expeditiously from Kamineni Hospital at LB Nagar.
Heart recipient Singareddy Kanakareddy was also present at the press conference addressed by Apollo doctors and officials.
The 44-year-old, who was discharged on Monday, was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy. He desperately needed a heart transplant to survive and was kept alive for over 45 days with continuous infusion of medicine, till he got transplanted with a new heart, said Dr Alla Gopala Krishna Gokhale, Senior Consultant, Heart and Lung Transplant Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals.
He said the speedy transportation of the heart by a dedicated metro train during peak traffic hour played a critical role, it enabled to bring the cadaver heart intact and aided in the overall success of the surgery.
“We created a new green channel of bringing the cadaver heart by Metro Rail, instead of the usual ambulance, helicopter etc, because the situation demanded and by road from one part of the city to another part would have taken lot of time. For a heart transplant, we can bring the heart within 4 hours and transplant, but this patient was critical, he was on a death bed and needed the heart to be transplanted within 1 to 2 hours to get best results,” he said.
He recalled that it was a spontaneous thought of exploring the metro option to speed up the transportation which helped. Even Metro Rail responded in less than 10 minutes to support the cause.
Dr K. Hari Prasad, President, Apollo Group Hospitals expressed gratitude to the donor and his family for coming forward to donate despite their distress, doctors of Kamineni Hospital for counselling the donor family and convincing them, Metro Rail which came forward to transport by a dedicated train to reduce the time, the city police for creating a dedicated green channel. He also thanked Jeevandatha the nodal agency managing organ donation.
Anil Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Police, (Traffic) Hyderabad said Hyderabad Traffic Police has been creating green channel for organ transportation for the last 2 to 3 years. Last year it created the green channel 25 times.
Anil Kumar Saini, COO, L&T Metro Rail, said it is a great occasion that a life has been saved through a dedicated train. Metro Rail which is the life line of the city and proves it can play a critical role in saving lives.