Chennai, February 27 In a coordinated effort on Friday involving Chennai Metro Ltd, airport authorities, Tamil Nadu Network for Organ Sharing, and the Tamil Nadu police, three life-saving organ transplants were successfully facilitated at Apollo Hospitals here.
While Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) deployed a dedicated train on Friday to transport a heart and lungs for emergency transplantation, the lungs were also transported from Trichy to Chennai via a specially coordinated green corridor.
The lungs and heart, which reached Apollo Hospitals in record time, were retrieved from a 17-year-old donor in Madurai. The organs were flown from Madurai to Chennai International Airport, where a special metro train was waiting to transport the medical team and the life-saving cargo, according to a press release issued by Apollo Hospitals.
By utilizing the metro corridor and bypassing city traffic, the transit from the airport to the DMS Metro Station was completed in just nine minutes, with the total journey to the hospital taking only 16 minutes.
Hospital officials stated that this seamless transit was critical in providing a renewed lease of life to a 43-year-old patient who received a heart transplant, and a 34-year-old who underwent a bilateral lung transplant.
Meanwhile, organ transfer via road, through the green corridor, was made possible with the support of the Tamil Nadu Police.
The donated organs have given a new lease of life to three patients: a 69-year-old who received a single lung transplant, a 34-year-old who underwent a bilateral lung transplant, and a 43-year-old who received a life-saving heart transplant.