The heart and two other vital organs – a kidney and pancreas - of a -36-year-old man who was declared brain dead in Thiruvananthapuram were taken to Kochi in a specially arranged helicopter to transplant to three patients at two hospitals in Kochi on Saturday morning. The heart will be transplanted into a 16-year-old patient at Lisie Hospital, while the kidney and pancreas will be taken to Aster Medcity Hospital through a green corridor set up by the police from the helipad in Kochi.
One kidney will be given to a patient in KIMS Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. The two eyes of the brain-dead person were also donated to the patients here at the Government Eye Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. The donor, Selvin Shekar, a native of Kanyakumari, was admitted to the KIMS Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on November 21 following an acute headache. On examination, it was found that there was bleeding in the brain and subsequently he was declared brain dead by hospital authorities on November 24. His wife who is a staff nurse at a hospital in Tamil Nadu then informed his willingness to donate the organs.
Soon, the Lisie and Aster Medcity in Kochi were informed of the declaration and the possibility of transplant through the Kerala Network for Organ Sharing (KNOS). A helicopter rented by the State government is used for the airlifting of the harvested organs from here for transplant.
