New Delhi: A green corridor was created to rush a donor heart nearly 95 km from PGIMS Rohtak to Delhi in just 63 minutes, giving a 47-year-old man with advanced heart failure a potentially life-saving chance at recovery.The recipient, Chanchal Yadav, had been battling severe heart failure for years, with his heart’s pumping capacity deteriorating despite treatment. He had become bedridden due to extreme breathlessness and recurrent life-threatening cardiac episodes.The transplant was performed by a multidisciplinary team led by Dr Dinesh Kumar Mittal, senior director and HOD, cardiothoracic and vascular surgery, Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh.The donor heart became available at PGIMS Rohtak, triggering an urgent operation involving hospital teams, transplant coordinators, National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO), and police authorities in Haryana and Delhi. The green corridor ensured uninterrupted transportation within the critical time window.“A heart transplant is among the most time-critical procedures in medicine, where every minute can have a direct bearing on the outcome,” said Dr Mittal. “The successful transplant was made possible by the seamless coordination of our organ retrieval, transplant surgery, anaesthesia, perfusion and critical care teams, working together with a shared sense of urgency and purpose.”Dr Naresh Kumar Goyal, principal director and HOD, cardiology and heart failure programme at the hospital, said the patient had reached a stage where medication and an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (AICD) were no longer sufficient to manage his condition.“At this stage, heart transplantation offered the most definitive treatment option and a meaningful opportunity to improve his quality of life,” he said, thanking the donor’s family for their generosity.Yadav expressed gratitude to the doctors and the donor’s family, saying their efforts had given him a second chance at life. He described the family’s decision to donate the heart as a selfless act that had renewed his hope for the future.
