MADURAI: A 51-year-old woman from Mumbai received a liver in a cadaver transplant surgery in a private hospital in the city on Tuesday.
The organ, from a brain-dead person in Puducherry was transported through a green corridor. It was the first time the organ other than cornea was brought to the temple city for transplant within three-and-a-half hours from Puducherry, which is 370 km away, through a green corridor, thanks to the medical crew and police department.
In the wee hours of Tuesday, Apollo Hospital requested the Tamil Nadu police for the formation of the corridor. Immediately, the police headquarters in all districts along the national highway from Villupuram to Madurai were alerted.
“We started from JIPMER a little after 6 a.m. by car. The Puducherry police helped us till we crossed the border. Once we entered Villupuram, the Tamil Nadu police took over,” said S Jegatheesan (35), who drove the car.
Highway patrol teams escorted the car for almost the entire distance. The toll gates along the way were informed beforehand about the vehicle number and the gravity of the issue, he added.
“Police were present at all toll gates to ensure that we did not face any hurdle,” said Jegatheesan.
The liver was shifted from the car to an ambulance near the toll gate at Samayapuram in Tiruchy district.
Though the crew entered Madurai district within three hours, a slight delay occurred near Pallapatti as the vehicle was stopped by locals, who were protesting the death of a seven-year-old girl who had been run over by a lorry truck a while ago.
The locals let the ambulance go, but they stopped the car with the doctors that was following the ambulance. “We had to argue with them for about 20 minutes. Only after convincing them that the doctor also had to reach the hospital on time for the operation did they let us go,” said Jegatheesan. The crew including the doctors managed to enter the Apollo Hospital campus around 9.40 am.
“It was the fourth liver transplant surgery held in Apollo Specialty Hospital (ASH-Madurai). It also proved that expertise and infrastructure in Madurai was of international standards,” said Rohini Sridhar, chief operating officer (COO), of the hospital.
V Vethavalli (68) of Puducherry was riding pillion in the town on Monday, when she collapsed. She sustained severe head injuries. When she was referred to JIPMER hospital, the doctors declared her brain-dead.
As soon as her son Prakasam declared his wish to donate her organs, so that his mother could give life to five persons, arrangements were made to harvest the liver, heart, kidneys and corneas.
An ASH surgical team reached JIPMER and checked the liver’s condition. It took over five hours for the JIPMER team to harvest all the organs. The liver was sent to Madurai and other organs were donated to patients in various other places. Recipient of the liver, Maya Shah, a homemaker from Mumbai, had been suffering from liver cirrhosis for the last four years and had been waiting for a donor. “Her liver had failed, but the cause was not known. Our priority was to save her life through liver transplant,” said P Rajesh Prabhu, medical gastroenterologist, who was in-charge of the liver transplant programme of ASH.
The family of the recipient thanked Vethavalli’s family and said Maya Shah underwent various treatments for the disease but doctors finally said her liver could not be saved and transplant was the only option. “We are happy that Maya got the liver and hope her health will improve,” said Sanjay Shah (52), her husband.