KOCHI: The state on Tuesday set yet another example in multi organ donation, this time to four persons including a foreign national.
The heart and lungs of 12-year-old Adith Paulson, who was declared brought dead on Monday evening were flown to Chennai from Aster Medicity to transplant on a 10-year-old Kazakhstan girl Dilnaz. She was undergoing treatment for the last few months for heart failure at the Fortis Malar Hospital, Chennai.
The kidney and liver of Adith, with B negative blood group, were taken for a patient at Lakeshore hospital in the city and cornea for a patient in another hospital in the city.
“When the boy was declared brain dead the message was passed to all hospitals in the state. The match was only for a five-year-old child in a hospital in the state. But the size of the heart didn’t match. Then we passed the message to other states; to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The response came from Tamil Nadu Cadaver Transplant Programme. In fact, no Indian was found to be a matching recipient in any hospital either in Tamil Nadu or across India, said Dr Noble Gracious SS of Kerala Network for Organ Sharing.
“Dr Suresh G Nair co-ordinated with the teams from other hospitals to carry out the surgery to remove the organs”, said chief of medical services of Aster Medicty Dr Narayanan Unni.
The medical team from Fortis Hospital, Chennai reached Kochi by a private aircraft to receive the organ by 4.10 pm. The surgery to remove the organs started by 4.30 pm and the team left for Chennai by 6.15 pm. The organ was carried to Nedumbassery airport in an ambulance through the ‘green corridor’ created by the city police in just 25 minutes in peak traffic time.
Adith Paulson is the younger son of K K Paulson, a businessman in Thrissur, and Shincy.
Adith was shifted from Jubilee Mission Hospital where the boy and his father were admitted on Sunday afternoon with serious injuries in an accident. The car they were travelling in collided with a school bus near Mala.
It is the third organ transplantation in the state in a time span of one month in which organs were flown within and outside the state in record time.