Armed forces developing another green corridor

CHANDIGARH: After using an SU-30 frontline fighter aircraft to transport vital organs from a donor in Pune to a recipient in New Delhi recently, the armed forces are developing another green corridor for rapid transport of organs from Chandigarh to Delhi.

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 6

After using an SU-30 frontline fighter aircraft to transport vital organs from a donor in Pune to a recipient in New Delhi recently, the armed forces are developing another green corridor for rapid transport of organs from Chandigarh to Delhi.

As part of the new corridor project, a mock drill for transporting a liver from the Command Hospital in Chandimandir to the Chandigarh airport was held today. The total road journey that takes almost 45 minutes was completed in a little over seven minutes, with assistance from the local police.

Maj Gen Rajvir Singh, the hospital Commandant, said a green road corridor between the hospital and the airport had been developed to facilitate quick transport of vital human organs retrieved from brain dead persons and an air corridor between Chandigarh and Delhi for the same purpose was also on the anvil.

In a unique operation last month, an SU-30 had flown from Pune to Delhi carrying a liver and kidney retrieved at the Command Hospital, Pune, from a brain dead 45-year-old housewife, who had succumbed to head injuries sustained in a road accident. An SU-30 on standby for the purpose got airborne with the organs at 11.20 pm and reached Delhi at 40 minutes past midnight. The liver was meant for an ex-serviceman and the kidney was to go to the son of a serving sergeant in the IAF. Both patients, admitted to the Army Research and Referral Hospital, were in urgent need of transplants and in last stages of liver and kidney diseases.

Last month, the IAF also airlifted the liver retrieved from a brain dead person at the PGI here, by a team of surgeons from the Command Hospital, Chandimandir, to New Delhi. Under the leadership of Col Anuj Sharma, a senior Army surgeon, the hospital has been a leading institute in northern India to promote organ donation activities and has carved out a niche for itself by carrying out eight multi-organ retrievals of liver, kidneys and corneas, including from the PGI, in record time.

Meanwhile, observing the World Organ Donation Day at the Command Hospital, Chandimandir, a motivating talk and video film on organ donation by Sudhir Dewan, Director, Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network Foundation, espoused the virtues of organ donation for the patients with end-stage disease. He emphasised that there was an extreme shortfall of organs.

Next of kin and families of the deceased donors were felicitated.