City witnesses medical miracle with live heart transplant

Kolkata: A team of doctors at Fortis Hospital at Anandapur pulled off a medical miracle, as they successfully transplanted

a live heart into a patient in

the city on Monday, opening a new chapter in medical science and extending the horizon of heart transplantation in this part of the country in near future.

The city witnessed the grand event on Monday morning, when the live heart was flown to the city all the way from Bangalore. A green corridor was set up between Kolkata Airport and the hospital, for smooth transportation of the organ.

The green corridor, set up by Bidhannagar and the city police, helped to transport the live heart to the hospital in a record time of 18 minutes, covering a distance of 18 km.

The heart was harvested at a Bangalore hospital before it was airlifted to Kolkata, early on Monday morning. Varun DK (21) had met with a fatal road accident in Bangalore and he was declared brain dead after being admitted to a hospital on 19 May.

After his family members made a pledge about the organ donation, the hospital authorities there contacted a hospital in Chennai but there was no recipient.

After being contacted, the private hospital in the city said that one Dilchand Singh (39), a patient from Jharkhand was requiring a heart transplant.

Singh was suffering from Dilated Cardiomyopathy and had been on the waitlist since January 2017. The family members of Varun decided to donate his heart, after they were given informed counseling on organ donation at the Bangalore hospital.

The Cardiac Transplant Team from Fortis rushed and harvested the donor heart at 7 a.m on Monday.

The team of doctors who performed the surgery included Dr Tapas Raychaudhury, Senior Consultant, Cardio Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Dr K Mandana, Consultant, Cardio Thoracic and Vascular Surgery and Dr Saikat Bandopadhyay, Senior Consultant, Cardiac Anesthesiologist and Intensivist from Fortis Hospital, Anandapur.

The heart transplant was conducted under the expert supervision of Dr K R Balakrishnan, Director, Cardiac Sciences and Dr Suresh Rao, Chief Cardiac Anesthetist from Fortis Malar Hospital in Chennai, which runs one of the largest Heart Transplant Programmes in Asia.

The state government was approached, after which the Health department acted promptly to give necessary clearance to the private hospital. The hospital authorities also thanked the state government for making this happen within a very short span of time.

A detailed plan to transport the live heart was worked out between various authorities from police to state administration and Swasthya Bhawan, to execute the green corridor with impeccable timing.

The green corridor was created from the hospital to Kolkata Airport. The flight took off at 8.35 a.m from Bangalore and landed at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport at 10:45 a.m.

The green corridor in Kolkata started from the airport and went through Teghoria - Baguihati - Lake Town - HUDCO building More – Beleghata - Science City - VIP Bazaar to reach the hospital in Anandapur.