Traffic on a busy corridor of Hyderabad came to a stand still, police cleared the roads, vehicles veered off and people lined up on the streets as an ambulance with blaring siren cruised from Begumpet Airport to Yashoda Hospital with a live donor heart and a team of doctors.
The heart, which was flown in a specially chartered flight from Bengaluru to Hyderabad was drive to the hospital in flat 2 minute 45 seconds from the airport to ensure that the ticking heart was in a fine and healthy condition.
History of sort was made as a team of doctors led by AGK Gokhale carried out the first heart transplant operation in Hyderabad by giving a new lease of life to 46-year-old lady Padma from Kothagudem in Khammam district.
After the successful operation the housewife is now in ICU under close monitoring by the doctors. The heart came from a donor 30-year-old Pandit Shivaraya Baje who was seriously injured in a road accident in Benglauru on Thursday last. While undergoing treatment at Victoria Hospital he was declared brain dead on Friday last.
Yashoda hospital doctors, who had placed a request for live donor heart to Bengaluru and Chennai hospitals received a call on Saturday afternoon form Jeevandan, a NGO informing them about the availability of a live heart for transplant.
Authorities in both the State capitals were alerted for making arrangements to ensure swift and smooth transport of the heart from Bengaluru to Hyderabad. While Bengaluru police ensured that the heart was transported from Victoria Hospital to HAl airport covering 15 kms in 15 minutes, similar arrangements were made at Hyderabad where luckily hospital was less hardly 4 kms away from the airport.
The recipient of the donor heart was suffering from a rare condition in which the muscles of her heart had weakened and it was unable to pump the blood.