Youth cardiac patient gets heart of 25-year-old deceased man

The organ was ferried from Fortis Hospital at Vasant Kunj to Fortis Escorts Heart Institute (FEHI) on July 25 night through a 14 km-long green corridor in a span of 18 minutes passing through south Delhi's busy Outer Ring Road.

"According to the hospital-wise data decided by the NOTTO (National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation), the heart was allocated to FEHI, one kidney to Fortis Hospital Vasant Kunj, one kidney to BLK Hospital and the liver was given to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital," the Fortis Hospital Group said. The donor, a 25-year-old man, was brought to the emergency ward of Fortis Hospital Vasant Kunj at 3.58 am on July 24, with multiple fractures and multiple organ failure, and was later declared brain dead the next day, the hospital authorities said.

"Starting at 8:43 pm, the Fortis Organ Retrieval and Transplant (FORT) unit transported the heart via Outer Ring Road (on July 25) from Fortis Hospital at Vasant Kunj to FEHI at Okhla, via Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, IIT Flyover, Malviya Nagar, Nehru Place and Modi Mill, reaching by 9:04 pm," the hospital group said in a statement.

The recipient, suffering from congestive heart failure, underwent a life-saving surgery that went on for four hours and the patient is recovering well.

Meanwhile, Dr Rajeev Sood, Director, Urology, Robotics & Kidney Transplantation performed a kidney transplant on a 59- year-old man at Fortis Vasant Kunj.

"The patient had end-stage renal disease and was on dialysis for the past three years. The transplanted kidney has provided him a new lease of life and is generating urine since the time of transplant. The patient is doing well and recovering well in the post-op ICU," he said.

"The organ donation rate in the country has increased over 10-fold over the last 5 years from 0.05 per million population to 0.8 per million in 2016.