Hyderabad: Traffic on a busy corridor of Hyderabad came to a standstill, police cleared the roads, and people lined up on the streets as an ambulance cruised from Begumpet Airport to Yashoda Hospital with a live donor heart and a team of doctors on Saturday.
The heart, which was flown in a specially chartered flight from Bengaluru to Hyderabad, was driven to the hospital in two minutes and 45 seconds from the airport to ensure that it stayed healthy.
A team of doctors led by AGK Gokhale carried out the first heart transplant in Hyderabad and, as a result, gave a new lease of life to 46-year-old Padma from Kothagudem in Khammam district.
The housewife is in the hospital’s intensive care unit, and her condition is being closely monitored by doctors.
The heart came from 30-year-old Pandit Shivaraya Baje who was seriously injured in a road accident in Benglauru on Thursday. While undergoing treatment at Victoria Hospital he was declared brain-dead on Friday.
Yashoda hospital doctors, who had placed a request for a live donor heart to Bengaluru and Chennai hospitals, received a call on Saturday afternoon from Jeevandan, an NGO, informing them about the heart’s availability.
Authorities in both states were alerted and made arrangements to ensure the swift and smooth transport of the heart. While Bengaluru police ensured that the heart was transported from Victoria Hospital to HAL airport, covering 15km in 15 minutes, similar arrangements were made at Hyderabad where the hospital was less than 4km away from the airport.
The recipient of the donor heart was suffering from a rare condition, which caused the muscles of her heart to weaken and unable to pump blood.
