Navy flies harvested heart to save a life in Kochi

 In a first such effort in organ transplantation in Kerala, an air ambulance -- a Naval aircraft -- was used to transport a heart harvested from a brain dead patient here for a recipient in Kochi.

The air ambulance was arranged to airlift the heart following the intervention of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, official sources said. A team of doctors who arrived here from Kochi by 1.30 pm, harvested the organ from Neelakantan Sharma, declared brain dead this morning at the Sree Chitra Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology here.

Sharma, who was suffering from paralysis, had been undergoing treatment at the hospital since July 5. The harvest surgery was completed around 6.30 pm and the heart was immediately taken to the airport from where Navy's Dornier aircraft transported it to Kochi for transplantation on Mathews, a patient at the Mar Augustine Kandathil Memorial Lisse Hospital, hospital officials said. 

After the heart reached naval airport from Thiruvananthapuram, in only 9 minutes the ambulance covered a distance of 8 km to reach Lisse hospital thanks to active support from policemen and common citizens. 

For three months Mathews has been under treatment and doctors had zeroed in on heart transplant as the only way to save his life.  Renowned heart surgeon Jose Chacko Periappuram and a team of doctors under him oversaw the entire procedure. 

With PTI inputs