Heart flown across 210km for transplant in Kerala

Trivandrum - After heroic heart transplant, auto rickshaw driver doing well at Cochin hospital

Mathew Achadan of Chalakkudy in Trichur district of Kerala had given up hope when doctors told him that only a new heart can save his life.
Mobilising about Rs2.5 million for the heart transplantation was beyond the imagination of Mathew, who was finding it difficult to make both ends meet with the meager earning he made from running an auto rickshaw.
However, his friends were not ready to leave him to his fate. They went from door to door and collected enough money not only for the transplantation but also to set up a stitching unit for his wife to take care of her husband and two children for the next one year when Mathew needs rest.

The efforts of the entire village were not enough to give a new lease of life to Mathew, who was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition resulting in lack of blood supply to all organs. Though they were fortunate enough to get a matching heart within three months, bringing the heart from Trivandrum to Cochin remained a challenge.
Doctors' at Lisie Hospital at Cochin were not confident about transporting the brain-dead patient's heart by road as it would have taken minimum four hours to cover the distance of 210kms even with a green corridor considering the congested roads in the evening.
They feared that the functions of the heart may deteriorate by then. According to doctors, the ischemic timing of a heart is four to five hours. Heart transplantation may not get the desired result if the heart removed from a donor does not start beating in the recipient's body within this period.

The only option before them was to airlift the heart. It was not easy as there was no air ambulance in the state. The matter was taken up with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who was quick to suggest a Navy helicopter. Though it was for the first time that the force was asked to undertake a rescue operation of this nature in the entire India, the naval authorities went a step further and offered their Dronier aircraft that takes only 35 minutes to cover the distance between Trivandrum and Cochin as against 90 minutes a chopper takes.
The aircraft carrying the heart took off from the Indian Air Force (IAF) base in the state capital at 6.48pm and reached the Cochin naval base at 7.29pm. An ambulance took the heart to Lisie Hospital 10km away in little more than eight minutes under spotless traffic provided by the police. Over 400 policemen were involved in paving a green corridor for the ambulance at Cochin as well as Trivandrum.
The transplant operation began at 8am under renowned cardio-thoracic surgeon Dr. Jose Chacko Periyapuram, who himself had gone to Trivandrum to retrieve the heart from brain-dead advocate Neelakanta Sharma.
The donor's heart began beating in the body of Mathew two hours after the commencement of the surgery. Mathew, who was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit in the morning, is doing well, according to the doctors. They said he will be able to go home after two weeks and continue his life's journey with Sharma's heart beating in his body.
Mathew may also be seen as a symbol of the rare unity and coordination that made the state's first air-lifted heart transplantation a big success. The state chief minister has expressed his gratitude to all those who worked behind the operation. He said that the government would soon take steps to introduce an air ambulance in the state.
Health Minister V.S. Shivakumar said that he had directed the health secretary to file a detailed report in this regard.
He said that the government was planning to forge tie-ups with prominent hospitals in the state for introducing the air ambulance.
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