New Delhi: A 15-year-old girl, who met with a fatal road accident on August 15, saved with her organs the lives of six people, including a woman from Bihar’s Bhagalpur who received her heart.
The heart transplant on the 32-year-old woman, with terminal heart failure following childbirth, was conducted at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr RML Hospital, here on Monday.
Laxmi Devi was suffering from breathlessness severe enough to curtail even routine daily activities, the hospital said in a statement.
She was evaluated at the RML Hospital by a team of cardiologists who advised a heart transplant, following which she was registered with the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), the statement said.
According to the statement, the donor girl, Basu, had met with an accident on August 15 and was admitted to the PGIMER in Chandigarh with severe head injury.
She was declared brain dead on August 20 and was kept on a ventilator to sustain her organs, the statement said.
After counselling by the transplant coordinator at the Chandigarh hospital, her father, Ajo Manji, a daily wage labourer, came forward to donate all organs of Basu to needful persons suffering from end-stage diseases and awaiting healthy organs to have a new life.
In the morning of August 21, the NOTTO released an alert about the availability of a donor heart at the PGIMER-Chandigarh.
A team of cardiac surgeons from the RML Hospital and AIIMS led by Dr Narender Singh Jhajhria reached the PGIMER Chandigarh the same evening and harvested the donor heart which was then expeditiously flown to New Delhi within two hours, the statement said.
This was the first successful heart transplant at a central government-run hospital in New Delhi, the statement said.
This herculean endeavour was made possible by the seamless coordination of diverse departments, including blood bank team, transplant coordinators of the hospital, under overall supervision of Dr Nandini Duggal, Director and Medical Superintendent, ABVIMS, Dr RML Hospital, the statement added.
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