Mumbai, April 28 (IANS) A 62-year-old man from Navi Mumbai got a new lease of life on Thursday when he received a heart transplant from a brain dead woman.
This was the second heart transplant carried out by Fortis Hospital in Mulund within two days and the 15th since August, a spokesperson said.
The heart recipient was on a waiting list for over a month. He was suffering from Dilated Cardiomyopathy.
The 50-year-old woman was declared brain dead at M.G.M. Hospital in Navi Mumbai after a collapse at here home which resulted in Subdural Acute Haemorrhage.
After the woman's family agreed to donate her heart and liver, the Fortis Hospital arranged for the transfer of the heart from Vashi to Mulund, a distance of 18 km that was covered in just 16 minutes on Thursday.
The harvested heart was taken from Navi Mumbai around 12.20 a.m. and travelled via Thane-Belapur-Airoli to reach Fortis Hospital in Mulund at 12.36 a.m. -- in 16 minutes flat, said Anvay Mulay, head of the cardiac transplant team.
The heart transplant was successfully done and the patient has now been shifted to the ICCU and shall be under observation for the next 2-3 days, Mulay added.
Fortis Hospital zonal director S. Narayani said now people in Maharashtra can have hope and need not go out of the state as they can avail the best treatment locally.
"Despite all successful surgeries that build awareness levels about organ donations, patients are still lost due to unavailability of hearts. We have a long way to go before the state becomes the transplant capital of the country," Narayani said.
Last week, the hospital carried out an inter-state transplant by flying down the heart of a teenager from Surat, Gujarat, in 75 minutes.
It was transplanted in a 43-year-old man from Rajasthan admitted here.
