Metro used to transport live heart for transplant

Naveen S Garewal 
Tribune News Service 
Hyderabad, February 2

The Hyderabad Metro on Tuesday ran a metro train solely for transporting a brain-dead person’s human heart for transplant.

This is the first case in the city where the entire metro was exclusively used for this purpose without any other passenger.

The heart was taken from a 45-year-old man found to be brain dead. The journey of transportation started at the Nagole metro station till the Jubilee Hills metro station, a distance of about 20 km that normally takes over an hour. Officials said that the heart was harvested at Kamineni Hospital in LB Nagar and transplanted at Apollo Hospitals in Jubilee Hills.

On humanitarian grounds, a special train was arranged at Nagole, which picked up the heart at around 3.30 pm on Tuesday and went non-stop of 21 km, crossing 16 stations between the two points without stopping. Apart from a team of paramedics, a doctor accompanied the donor’s heart.

KVB Reddy, the Managing Director and CEO, of L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited said it took less than 30 minutes for the train to reach Jubilee Hills, as the train travelled at an average speed of 40 km per hour. All stations were kept on guard and were informed regarding the movement of this special train. An ambulance was kept ready at Jubilee Hills to take the heart to the hospital.

In an official release, Apollo Hospital stated that Dr AGK Gokhale and his team accompanied the organ.

Reddy said in a statement: “This was a God-send opportunity for us to mobilise 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”.