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Thursday, March 28 2024
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Bengaluru

2-yr-old baby’s heart travels from B’luru to Chennai in 4 hours

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Bengaluru: The heart of a braindead 22-month-old boy from Jharkhand was transported by chartered flight from Bengaluru to Chennai within 45 minutes on Friday by a private hospital here, to be transplanted onto a two-and-year old patient from Russia.

inside child heartAfter a six-hour-long surgery at the Fortis Malar hospital in Chennai, doctors emerged from the Operation Theatre to announce that “the heart is beating”, bringing relief to the patient’s mother.

The woman, who did not wish to be named, said that the father’s name was Alexander Kudriaatsev.

“We are from Moscow, and have been in Chennai for the last three months waiting for a donor’s heart,” she said.

Doctors informed her that her child’s condition was improving, bringing a smile to her face. “His lung pressure went up, so we have kept him under observation,” the doctor told her.

Sources added the child had been admitted for dilated cardiomyopathy — a condition in which the heart becomes weakened and enlarged and cannot pump blood efficiently.

The heart was transported from Manipal Hospital to Bengaluru’s HAL Airport within three minutes, and the flight took 35 minutes to reach Chennai. From there, it was transported to Fortis Malar in seven minutes. “In all, the logistics took only 45 minutes,” said Dr K R Balakrishnan, director, Cardiac Sciences, Fortis Centre for Heart Failure and Transplant.

Two teams of doctors from Fortis Malar flew to Bengaluru on Thursday night after being alerted by Manipal Hospital.

Bengaluru parent’s heroic decision

Amit Upadhyay and his wife did everything to save their ailing 22-month-old son, Yatharth, who was admitted to Manipal Hospital with high fever. When doctors said they had little hope of recovery after he suffered a cardiac arrest followed by brain death, Upadhyay took a bold step and decided to donate Yatharth’s organs.

Upadhyay, who hails from Jharkhand, said, “With this effort my son will still be alive even after death.”

Immediately after Upadhyay’s decision, the Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka was informed, as were hospitals in nearby states including Fortis Malar in Chennai.

Manjula KU, Chief transplant coordinator, ZCCK said, “We alerted the neighbouring states as there was no child who required a heart transplant in the state. The patient’s family hardly required any convincing as they were already prepared to donate the organs.”

Police Support

The Bengaluru police had assigned 25 men to ensure that the ambulance carrying the heart got a signal-free ride from the hospital to the airport, a distance of two kilometres.

The city police created a ‘green corridor’ to enable speedy transport of the heart, kept in a cold storage organ transplant solution. The organ had a six-hour margin within which it should be harvested, transported and transplanted.

Dr H Sudharshan Ballal, medical director and chairman, medical advisory board, Manipal Hospital, said, “The parents magnanimity has to be really appreciated. The traffic was also co-ordinated very well by the police.”

 

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