Authorities transported a heart from a hospital in Bengaluru to a hospital in Chennai for a patient in 55 minutes—which is impressive as the two southern metropolitan cities are known for their notorious traffic.
The Chennai traffic police, on Sunday, created a special green signal corridor—from the Chennai airport to the Global Hospital in Perumbakkam—to transport the heart of a brain-dead patient. The journey took just 14 minutes though there were seven major junctions en route.
“The flight from Bengaluru landed at 1.30 pm, and an ambulance carrying the heart left the airport at 1.40 pm. We covered the 15.5 km distance in 14 minutes taking the Radial Road and the Medavakkam High Road. There were 24 policemen on duty, including one assistant commissioner and three inspectors,” said Manivalan, an inspector at the Mambakkam police station, to the Times of India (TOI).
According to TOI, the doctors attempted an interstate organ transport for the first time in March 2014.
“The biggest drawback of an interstate transport is the timing of flights. Chartered flights are very expensive,” said an official from the Tamil Nadu Organ Sharing Registry to TOI.
A heart can be kept in cold storage for up to four hours. However, shorter the time taken for the transplant, higher the chances are of success.
