After Monday's dramatic 'green corridor' enabled quick transport of a human heart from the Government General Hospital to save the life of a 21-year-old woman in a corporate hospital, some activists have cried foul that the recipient hospital had invited media attention to gain publicity. The incident has also triggered a debate among doctors if the names of donors and recipients should be disclosed.
While a heart was being transported in an ambulance through a "green corridor" to save the life of a young woman on Monday, a middle-aged woman sat sobbing on a bench at the Government General Hospital in Chennai. Behind the high-octane operation that moved the organ between two hospitals, 12km apart, in a little more than 13 minutes was this woman's loss and courage: Her 27-year-old son had died in a road accident and she had consented to donate his organs.
When it's more common to read reports of people losing their lives because of their inability to reach the hospital on time because of VIP traffic restrictions, here is a heart-warming story of traffic coming to a halt in Chennai to save the life of an ordinary patient.
On Monday evening, at 6.45 p.m., a green corridor was created to transport a heart from Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital to Fortis Malar Hospitals in Adyar. With a patrol vehicle leading the ambulance, it took 13 minutes 22 seconds, four minutes longer than the planned nine, to transport the vital organ, across 16 traffic signals through Kamaraj Salai.
At 73, J Sumitha was paralyzed by radiation given to treat tongue cancer. She knew she was nearing a point of no return. She filled in an online form to donate her organs on April 8. On Friday, minutes after she died at home, doctors harvested her eyes and skin. Her body was returned to the family because her organs weren't suitable for transplant.
In a first of sorts in the city, the skin and eyes of a 73-year-old woman were harvested on Friday evening. The organs were donated following an online pledge made by the donor. J. Sumitha, a resident of Vettuvankeni, had been ill for some time. Last year, she got in touch with us and pledged her organs on our website.
The city is fast catching up with certain developed countries in giving a new lease of life to people waiting for an organ transplant. The rate of organ donation in Chennai in 2013 stands at 14 per million population, which is much higher than the Tamil Nadu State average of 1.5 per million donation rate.
The national tally of kidney transplants is only 7,500 every year against a requirement of 2,10,000 surgeries, highlighting the need for preventive healthcare and awareness about organ donation, said Sunil Shroff, Managing Trustee of MOHAN Foundation, an NGO.
In order to raise awareness of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and organ donation, M.V. Hospital for Diabetes and MOHAN Foundation have joined hands to launch an organ protection and donation initiative in Chennai.
A senior citizen from Chennai gave a second lease of life to a liver failure patient here on Sunday, making it Maharashtra's first case of liver-sharing with another state. Doctors from the two metros, bound in a race against time, meticulously retrieved and harvested the organ in 10 hours.
