CHENNAI: Only seven out of the 12 hospitals licensed to do heart tra nsplants in Tamil Nadu, have actually done one. MIOT International which only recently procured a heart-transplant licence completed its first heart transplant on Sunday night.
Sridhar M (31), an auto driver, met with a road accident near Kancheepuram and had been admitted to the GH. Needing higher tertiary care he was shifted to MIOT International on Saturday.
However, he was declared brain dead on Sunday afternoon and his family, after being counselled, agreed to donate his organs. Six organs were transplanted, of which the heart, for the first time, was one of them. MIOT has extensive experience in liver transplants.
Hospitals in Coimbatore, despite being licensed for several years are yet to complete an organ transplant. Chennai hospitals, Fortis Malar and Apollo are surging ahead in the number of heart transplants done - with more than 70 of the 109 hearts transplanted in Chennai to date.
“SIMS hospital has been granted a licence recently, and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital renewed its licence just last month,” said an official with the Tamil Nadu Organ Sharing Network.