JOIN USAt least 23 people were awaiting a heart transplant in the State, but as luck would have it, the heart donated by a 30-year-old woman from Bangalore would match only with the fortunate recipient in Chennai.
Blood group, age factor, height and weight were just some of the parameters that needed to match when it came to the heart transplant, thus making the phenomenon itself a rarity, experts say.
While the heart of the woman did not match with some patients on the waiting list in the State, a few others could not be contacted, officials in the Zonal Co-ordination Committee of Karnataka for Transplantation (ZCCK) said. It was then decided to airlift the heart to a patient in Chennai.
It took almost three hours for the ZCCK to counsel the woman’s family to give their concent for organ donation, said Sudhakar, an official in the ZCCK. The committee then co-ordinated with the Transplant Authority in Chennai which had on its list a potential recipient in critical condition.
“We knew there was a patient awaiting heart transplant for survival. There was not much time for matching to be done and several parameters are involved. Right from the blood group to several other complexities such as height and weight, everything was to be considered. On checking, we found the donor’s heart did not match with those on the waiting list in Karnataka. Soon after, a decision was taken to send it to Chennai,” the official said.
Dr N K Venkataramana, vice president, BGS Global Hospital, told Deccan Herald that once the family gave their consent in the morning on Wednesday, all the legal procedures were completed quickly. By noon, the traffic police were informed and a green corridor was created.
Timed minute to minute, it was sequenced in such a way that an Air India flight would take off the minute the organ was taken in. The woman’s family have also consented to donate her kidneys, liver and eyes.