The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Hearty triumph of humanism

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Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008
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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Hearty triumph of humanism

Ramya Kannan

“The police did a commendable job of keeping all lights green”

A.P. Hithendran (extreme right) with his parents, the Ashokans, and younger brother.

CHENNAI: Shanti (name changed) has a long list of people to thank — the Ashokans, their son Hithendran, the surgeons, the hospital staff and most unlikely of all, the traffic police.

The 9-year-old girl, who had a condition that would have killed her, dilated cardio myopathy, now has a chance simply because the traffic police literally carried her heart to her.

When the Ashokans decided to donate their son Hithendran’s organs after he was declared brain dead, a suitable recipient was quickly identified in Shanti, a patient at Dr.Cherian’s Frontier Lifeline Hospital. Her heart had swollen and the chest cavity had expanded to fit the heart. That is one reason why the 16-year old’s heart could be used for a nine-year old, doctors say.

K. M. Cherian, paediatric cardiac surgeon, appealed to Chennai Commissioner of Police R. Sekar for help to rush the organ to the hospital.

Mr. Sekar, in turn, instructed the traffic police to facilitate this. Sunil Kumar, Joint Commissioner, Traffic, told The Hindu, “the best way to rush the organ was to take it in our own vehicle, and by ensuring green lights at every signal. As a result, we managed to take the heart from Apollo Hospitals in Teynampet to Frontier Lifeline in Mogappair in exactly 11 minutes.”

The surgery was performed by Dr.Cherian after his team, which was headed by consultant cardiac surgeon Madhu Shankar, rushed the heart in a bag of ice to the hospital in the police vehicle. “The police did a commendable job of keeping all lights green. The procedure commenced as soon as we reached the hospital and in 30 minutes, the heart was in place,” he says.

He adds that the harvested organ will have to be transplanted within four hours, and the faster it is done, the better are the outcomes.

Shanti is now under observation in the hospital’s ICU.

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