Green corridor helps transport heart from Delhi airport to hospital in 11 mins

New Delhi: A green corridor was created in the peak traffic hours here on May 18 to transport a harvested heart from the airport to a hospital, covering a distance of 13 km in just 11 minutes.

The corridor was provided at 5 pm from the Terminal 1 (Domestic) of the Delhi airport to the Max Saket Hospital in Saket for transporting the heart, the police said. The total distance covered was 13 km and the time taken was 11 minutes, they added.

Another ambulance having a kidney and a liver going towards ILBS, Vasant Kunj, was given way till Shahid Jeet Singh Marg. It took a total of an hour and 40 minutes to cover a distance of 256 km.

The heart along with the liver was flown in from Jaipur's SMS Hospital by a chartered flight on the evening of May 18, the statement said.

According to Dr Kewal Krishan, director and programme head, Heart Transplant and LVAD Surgeon at the hospital, "We got the information about the likelihood of a heart being available for transplantation in the early hours of the morning." "The transplant team flew down to SMS Hospital on an early morning chartered flight to retrieve the heart. We also helped retrieve the liver for implantation at another city hospital," he said.

Max Hospital deployed two ambulances and three bike responders, stationed strategically along the 15-km route, it said.