Hyderabad Metro Saves A Heart, Transports Live Heart For Transplant

Hyderabad: For the first time in Telangana, Metro Rail was used to transport an organ from one hospital to another for transplantation.

Hyderabad Metro Rail created a special green corridor between Nagole and Jubilee Hills to facilitate non-stop transport of a heart from Kamineni Hospital, L.B. Nagar, to save a patient admitted at Apollo Hospital, Jubilee Hills, on Tuesday. The Hyderabad Metro covered a distance of 21 kilometers in less than 30 minutes, according to an IE report.

What is 'Green Corridor'?

Green corridors have been created for the transportation of organs through roads in the past. A 'green corridor' is a special route that is managed in a way that all the traffic signals that come in the route of the hospital where an organ is harvested and the hospital where it is to be transplanted, are green and controlled manually.

Hyderabad Metro Rail created a special green corridor between Nagole and Jubilee Hills to facilitate the transport of a heart from Kamineni Hospital, LB Nagar to save a patient admitted at @HospitalsApollo, Jubliee Hills. #HyderabadMetro pic.twitter.com/AOCnebvdnD

— L&T Hyderabad Metro Rail (@ltmhyd) February 2, 2021

The train commenced its unique journey from Nagole Metro Station to the Jubilee Hills Check-post Station around 4.30 pm. The ambulance with the organ started from Kamineni Hospital and the team shifted into the train at Nagole. The train reached the Jubilee Hills Check-post Metro station around 5 pm.

Dr. AGK Gokhale and his team accompanied the organ, according to the Apollo Hospitals' management. An ambulance was kept ready at the Jubilee Hills station to rush the heart and the team to the hospital. Around 4.40 PM, the team from the hospital started their journey with the live heart, on the metro train and crossed 16 stations in half an hour. According to the report, a drive to the destination by road would have taken more than an hour time.

.@ltmhyd played a small part to help save a life. An exclusive green corridor was created for a special train between Nagole and Jubilee Hills to facilitate transporting a live heart from Kamineni Hospital, LB Nagar to reach Jubilee Hills within 30 mins.https://t.co/YGX1EqBgeB

— L&T Hyderabad Metro Rail (@ltmhyd) February 3, 2021

This was done to save a critical patient who was in need of an urgent transplant. The organ donor was 45-year-old farmer V. Narsi Reddy from Nalgonda. He was admitted to the hospital on Sunday and was declared brain-dead on Monday night. Reddy’s family approved for organ donation and his heart, kidneys, liver, and cornea are being used for transplantation, Apollo Hospital officials said.

The recipient is a 44-year-old male cardiac patient suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy. He came to Apollo Hospitals in a critical condition about a month and a half ago. He had severe heart failure, going into kidney failure, and had low blood pressure. The patient was kept alive with continuous infusion of medicine while searching for a cadaver heart which was found on Tuesday.

Surgeons’ request

According to Apollo Hospital’s Dr. AGK Gokhale, who traveled along with the live heart in the metro train, a 44-year-old patient was in a critical stage in Apollo hospital and was in urgent need of heart transplantation. When they came to know about the availability of a healthy organ from a 45-year-old person in Kamineni hospital who was brain-dead, the main challenge that came in front of them was the distance between the two facilities and the traffic on road.

Usually, roadways are used to transport organs intra-city. Though traffic on road could be cleared to establish a green channel for transporting organs, surgeons felt the heart, in this case, could be transported faster through Metro Rail. Due to the lack of a helicopter, this was the best option available.

Metro was used for the fast, uninterrupted transport of a live organ for transplant, the heart of a 45-year-old brain-dead patient from Kamineni Hospital in LB Nagar to Apollo Hospital, Jubilee Hills on an exclusive passenger-free Metro train. They also suspended other trains on the route for a while. All stations were kept on guard and informed through a PA system regarding the movement of the special train.

We created a special green corridor today to facilitate the non-stop transport of a heart from Kamineni Hospital, LB Nagar to save a patient admitted at @HospitalsApollo. Pacing through 21 km crossing 16 stations from Nagole in 30 mins for the train to reach Jubilee Hills. pic.twitter.com/YyEVoYVevr

— L&T Hyderabad Metro Rail (@ltmhyd) February 2, 2021

NVS Reddy, MD, Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited was quoted in the report saying that a special dedicated train was run for the first time to transport a heart to save a life.

Interestingly, the first green corridor in India was created by Chennai Traffic Police in September 2008, that organ saved a nine-year-old girl whose life depended on the transplant.

A.G.K. Gokhale, senior consultant, Cardiothoracic, Transplant, and Minimal Access Surgeon at Apollo Hospitals, and his team were performing the heart transplantation on the patient till late evening on Tuesday.

Governor of Telangana Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan also appreciated Hyderabad Metro Rail's efforts in helping save a life, on Twitter. 

Appreciate the unique efforts of the doctors, police, and the Hyderabad Metro Rail for the successful transportation of brain dead heart through green channel via metro rail in a record time across 21Kms
Salute the noble gesture of the donor's family.
Organ Donor saves lives pic.twitter.com/feSzvCz6xY

— Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan (@DrTamilisaiGuv) February 2, 2021