Man for whom heart transported in metro recovers well

Naveen S Garewal 
Tribune News Service 
Hyderabad, February 16

The man for whom the Hyderabad Metro created history by transporting a donor’s heart has recovered well and was discharged with a new heart on Monday. The heart taken from a brain-dead person was transported in the Metro to cut transportation time and ensure the recipient got the new heart in a good shape.

On February 2 the heart was taken from a 45-year-old man found to be brain dead. The journey of transportation had started at the Nagole metro station till the Jubilee Hills metro station, a distance of about 20 km that normally takes over an hour.

It was for the first time in Hyderabad that the metro rail was used to transport an organ wherein a green corridor was specially created by Hyderabad Metro Rail and Hyderabad Police, for the heart, to reach Apollo Hospitals at Jubilee Hills, expeditiously from Kamineni Hospital at LB Nagar.

Heart recipient Singareddy Kanakareddy was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy. He desperately needed a heart transplant to survive and was kept alive for over 45 days with continuous infusion of medicine, till he got transplanted with a new heart. This was revealed by Dr Alla Gopala Krishna Gokhale, Senior Consultant, Heart and Lung Transplant Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals while discharging the heart recipient. Dr AGK Gokhale and his team had accompanied the organ.

On February 2, KVB Reddy, the Managing Director and CEO, of L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited had said: “This was a God-send opportunity for us to mobilize our resources towards saving a precious life. We took all safety measures in place along with creating a green corridor to mobilize a special non-stop train from Nagole to Jubilee hills, seamlessly facilitating the transportation of the heart in a quest to save a life”.

The recipient of the new heart will now slowly recover further from home and doctors expect him to lead a meaningful life ahead.