Multiple organ donation: Woman who died in accident gives new lease of life to several patients

Several people got a new lease of life after receiving organs of a 56-year-old woman, including her heart that was sent to a hospital in south Delhi for transplant for a man, through a green corridor from Noida, officials said Monday.

The woman, from Ghaziabad, had suffered a serious head injury in an accident and was declared brain dead despite best efforts by doctors at a private hospital in Noida Sunday, a senior official of the hospital said.

"After getting consent of the family, the harvested organs -- heart, liver, two kidneys and cornea -- were sent to multiple patients at different hospitals in Delhi-NCR. The heart was sent to Max Hopital, Saket and a green corridor was facilitated by traffic police authorities of both the cities," a senior official of Fortis Healthcare group said.

The woman had died at Fortis Hospital in Noida.

The distance of 28 km between the two facilities was covered in just 21 minutes, a spokesperson of the hospital group said, adding that the heart reached Max Hospital around 10 pm.

"One of the kidneys of the woman and the liver were retained by Fortis Hospital, Noida. The second kidney was sent to Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh in north west Delhi, but no green corridor was needed for that," the spokesperson added.

The corneas were sent to Shroff Eye Centre, the hospital said.

Authorities at Max Hospital said the recipient of the heart was a 28-year-old man, who had undergone an unsuccessful heart surgery two months ago.

"The green corridor was facilitated last night and the surgery took two-and-a-half hours," a Max Hospital group spokesperson said.

The patient had a swollen heart because of end stage heart failure caused due to cardiomyopathy. The patient had earlier undergone open heart surgery to fix this condition which remained unsuccessful, the hospital said.

"The patient is stable and under observation", said Kewal Krishan, Director Heart Transplant and Ventricular Assist Devices, Principal Consultant- CTVS, Max Super Speciality Hospital Saket.

Hospital authorities at Fortis said the donations were done as per the norms of the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO).