New Delhi:
A 32-km 'green corridor' was set up between Delhi and Gurgaon to transport a heart, which was transplanted to a 23-year-old girl with a rare heart disease admitted at a Delhi hospital.
The live heart was transported to the Escorts Heart Institute in 27 minutes 56 seconds where the girl was admitted, after the 'Corridor' was created between Fortis Memorial Research Institute (FMRI) in Gurgaon and Fortis Escorts Heart Institute in Delhi.
The surgical procedure for the transplant took four hours to complete.
The family of 58-year-old donor, who had suffered brain hemorrhage and was declared brain dead at Fortis in Gurgaon, agreed to donate his organs, doctors said.
The girl, Oshin Goyal, suffered from restrictive cardio myopathy since last nine years. She initially had swelling on her feet and legs and gradually developed worsening breathlessness, abdomen and face, doctors said.
"Restrictive cardiomyopathy is a rarest form of cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the walls of the lower chambers of the heart (the ventricles) are abnormally rigid and lack the flexibility to expand as the ventricles fill with blood," Dr ZS Meharwal, Director and Coordinator, Cardiovascular Surgery Fortis Escorts Heart Institute said.
"When the patient was brought to us, we had a huge challenge on our hands as she had been bed-ridden for the last four months and had an extremely weak heart. Whether her body would be able to withstand the surgery put a big responsibility in our hands," Mr Meharwal said.
The discrepancy in the sizes of the donor's heart from that of the recipient's heart chamber presented added challenges, he said.
"A special technique had to be used to sutured donor's aorta to recipient's smaller aorta," he explained.
Dr Vishal Rastogi, Head, Heart Failure Program said, "The condition of this young patient had progressed to the extent that she had very little time to live. Despite the optimum levels of heart management that we were extending, transplant was the only option that was possible. There was no other treatment that could have been applied here."
Dr Somesh Mittal, Zonal Director, Fortis Escorts said, "India is witnessing over 3 million deaths in a year due to cardiovascular diseases making India a likely 'Heart Disease Capital of the World'.
"There is a huge disparity between the number of patients needing transplants and the number of procedures being performed. This has sharply brought into focus the need for creating more awareness on the noble act of donating organs," he said.
According to a survey by the World Health Organization (WHO), 60 per cent of the deaths in road accidents are of people in the age group of 15-44 years.
The father of the young girl thanked the doctors and the donor's family.
"We are really grateful to the family for taking such a noble decision and in being instrumental restoring life to our daughter," the father said, adding that her daughter would be discharged on Saturday.