soon as the heart was brought, the transplant began. By 10.15pm, the
heart was beating in the patient’s chest,” said Dr Suresh Rao, chief
anesthetist at Fortis Malar.
May many a million “green corridors” bloom. Best wishes (truly a second born) to Hvovi Minocherchomji (an interesting name – Naga? – if anything).
It is un-imaginable that people (and society in general) are silly enough to fight between themselves instead of co-operating. The silliest fights are on the basis of ideology, as if a Hindu heart beats differently from a Muslim one. If any policy question needs resolving, just apply the rule: how does it affect women (positively, adversely)? In general, the people in power need to remove bottlenecks that tend to throttle the lives of the aam aurat and lend a helping hand (and a useful heart) whenever required.
……….
Five
people with heart failure were waiting for a second shot at life and one
got lucky on Monday. Early Monday morning changed Mumbaikar Hvovi
Minocherchomji’s life when doctors told her that she would get a new
heart. The 21-year-old BCom student was suffering from swelling of the
heart (dilated cardiomyopathy) for four years and had decided to go to
the US for a transplant. But doctors advised her against it as the
waiting period for a heart there was two years and she had just three
months before things might turn worse.
Two
weeks ago Minocherchomji was admitted at Fortis Malar Hospitals in Adyar
and was enrolled in the state organ transplant registry. Good news came
at 7am. “There were five patients waiting for a heart and we chose
Hvovi as her condition was worsening by the moment. The donor’s blood
group and body weight also matched only with hers,” said Dr Suresh Rao,
chief anaesthetist at Fortis Malar.
The
ambulance carrying the heart, harvested from a 27-year-old man who died
in a traffic accident and preserved in a special container at 4 degrees
Celsius, started from Government hospital at 6.44pm and reached Fortis
Malar 13 minutes and 22 seconds later, at 6.57pm. Normally, a vehicle
takes 45 minutes to cover the stretch at peak hour.
At the
private hospital, the parents of Hvovi Minocherchomji’s, a 21-year-old
BCom student from Mumbai, received the heart – the mother in tears, the
father with a prayer on his lips.
Malar surgeons immediately got to the job of transplanting the organ on
the recipient who was kept ready. Through the day, the teams of doctors
at the two hospitals had been keeping each other informed about the
condition of the donor and the recipient. The liver and kidneys went to
other hospitals.
Malar got a call as early as 5.45am on Monday
that a brain-dead patient may be taken off the ventilator in a few hours
and that a heart, a liver and kidneys would be available for donation.
The Mumbai woman turned out to be luckier than five others awaiting a
heart transplant, as the donor’s blood group and body weight matched
only with hers among the other patients.
Almost simultaneously,
Karunasagar, the additional commissioner of police (traffic) was
informed about the need to transport the organ. By afternoon, the
traffic police were ready to create the green corridor, most of it along
the Beach Road and Santhome High Road, two of the busiest stretches in
the evening.
……..
……
regards