By IANS,
Chennai: A Pakistani national has got a new lease of life after an Indian family donated the heart of their family member, who died in a road accident here, to him.
Riaz Mohammad, 54, got a fresh heart at Frontier Lifeline Hospital July 10 from a 35-year-old man declared brain dead after a road accident, doctors at the hospital said.
Prashant Vaijyanath, a doctor at Frontier Lifeline, said Riaz came to the hospital for heart transplant June 22 and was admitted the next day.
The Pakistani had a massive heart attack in 2003 and had undergone a bypass surgery.
“His case was a redo-bypass surgery. We found his heart was weak and was functioning just 15 percent. The only way out was a heart transplant,” Vaijyanath said.
Riaz was registered under the Tamil Nadu Network for Organ Sharing (TNOS). He was wait-listed, awaiting a suitable donor’s heart for transplant.
One organ, from the road accident victim, became available July 8 at Global Hospital here
After the consent from the deceased’s family and obtaining the green signal from the officials concerned, a search was made for an Indian recipient in Tamil Nadu and across the country. Since no appropriate recipient was found, an offer was made to Frontier Lifeline for Riaz.
Frontier Lifeline’s medical team harvested the heart from the donor. The heart was taken out at 1.47 a.m. July 10 and brought to Frontier Lifeline at 2.11 a.m. covering a distance of 34.8 km in 24 minutes.
The transplant operation took around five hours but was successful, the doctors said.