A heart harvested from a 15-year-old Bengaluru boy was transported aerially to a hospital here through green corridors on Friday.
A team of doctors, led by Dr Z S Meharwal, director, Cardio Vascular Surgery at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute in Delhi (FEHI) performed the heart transplant on a 63-year-old man from Bihar, who had been suffering from heart failure.
"A heart transplant is a critical surgery where timing is a key factor. We have a window period of 5 hours in which we had to retrieve the heart from Bengaluru, transport it to FEHI Delhi and performed the heart transplant surgery.
"Our retrieval team coordinated very closely with transplant team at FEHI. We are grateful for the immense support received from traffic police of Bengaluru, Delhi, the Airport Authority of India and airlines to minimise the transport time," Meharwal said.