39-year-old Meerut man gets new lease of life as heart for transplant reaches Delhi from Chandigarh in under 2 hours  

A 39-year-old man from Meerut battling dilated cardiomyopathy got a new lease of life after a donor heart travelled from Chandigarh to the national capital in just an hour and 55 minutes through multiple green corridors.

The life-saving transplant was carried out on August 26 at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, where doctors replaced the patient's failing heart with the donor organ.

The transportation across two states ensured the heart arrived in optimal condition, significantly improving the chances of success, hospital officials said on Wednesday.

The patient had been suffering from severe mitral valve leakage and worsening breathing difficulties for the past four years, requiring multiple ICU admissions. After being registered with the National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) last month, he was shortlisted for the donor organ from Chandigarh.

A team led by Dr Sujay Shad, Senior Consultant and Director of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, along with other specialists, performed the transplant successfully. The patient was weaned off the ventilator within 18 hours and has since resumed light activity, doctors said.

The transplant was made possible by the combined efforts of NOTTO, the retrieval and transplant teams, and the creation of seamless green corridors across two states. "The fact that the heart reached us in under two hours played a pivotal role in the success of this surgery," Dr Shad said.