Heart airlifted from Pune to Delhi, reaches hospital through green corridor

New Delhi, Feb 18: Heart harvested from a man in Pune was on Tuesday airlifted to Delhi and then transported to a hospital here through an 18-km green corridor, officials said.

The surgery to transplant the donated heart of the 47-year-old brain-dead person into a 34-year-old woman patient was underway at the private hospital here, they said.

"Heart was retrieved from a brain-dead patient in Pune and then flown to Delhi. A green corridor was then made from Delhi airport to the Fortis Escorts Heart Institute (FEHI) to transport the organ for a transplant surgery," a hospital spokesperson said.

The distance of 18 km was covered in 21 minutes, the police said.

"The team at FEHI was alerted by National Organ Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) about a possible donor heart in Ruby Hall Clinic in Pune earlier today. The team immediately left for Pune to retrieve the heart," the hospital said in a statement.

The recipient, undergoing treatment at the hospital, was in critical condition for almost a month and on levosimendan infusion support, it said.