It is the largest distance organs have flown so far. We tried to get an Indian Air Force aircraft but it did not work out: Dr Dr Vimal Bhandari.
Negotiations started at Rs 18 lakh and finally the parties settled for Rs 14.5 lakh. No, this is not the price of a swanky car but the amount that was charged by a charter aircraft to transport donor heart and lungs from Chandigarh to Mumbai — a distance of 800 nautical miles. For the recipient families desperately waiting for an organ, this was the last hope to save their loved ones.
The donor was a 40-year-old man who was declared brain dead in Chandigarh on Saturday. While the lung recipient was a 55-year-old woman from Indore, who was critical, the heart recipient was a 46-year-old man also hanging on to his life — both at the Fortis hospital.
"The moment we heard that the organs were available we started coordination. The matches were found in Mumbai making it the largest distance the organs have flown so far. We tried to get an Indian Air Force aircraft but it did not work out," said Dr Vimal Bhandari, director, National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) who has been pushing for a proposal to use air force resources for organ transportation to bring down the costs. In the absence of regulation, the charter flights can name their price.
The heart and lungs don't last for more than four hours and desperate recipient families don't want a donor organ to go waste. They bear the cost of the transportation that will eventually double or even triple the cost of the surgery. So far though 5 lakh is the maximum amount a family has paid, making Saturday's price a record one.
"We received calls about it but there is nothing the Maharashtra government can do in such instances. It is the central government that can make rules," said Dr Gauri Rathod, assistant director of Directorate of Health Services, Maharashtra, who looks after the department of Human Organ Transplant Act.
Also, there are limited options for chartered flights at odd hours. In this case, the organs were lifted from Chandigarh at 11.30 pm on Saturday and they reached Mumbai a little after 1 am on Sunday. "Since it is the monsoon season we had to engage our most advanced machines. Also as we were lifting two organs, the stakes were too high and the distance was large," said Mandar Bharde, managing director, MAB Aviation which owns the charter flight brought into use in this particular case.
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