Indian Transplant Newsletter.Vol. 14 Issue No.: 43 (Nov 2014–Feb 2015)
Print ISSN 0972 - 1568

‘Green corridors’ in Delhi and Gurgaon enable lifesaving transplants

Indian Transplant Newsletter.
Vol. 14 Issue No.: 43 (Nov 2014–Feb 2015)
Print ISSN 0972 - 1568
Print PDF


On 4th January 2015 the Delhi and Gurgaon police came together to create a 32 km ‘green corridor’ from Fortis Memorial Research Centre (FMRI), in Gurgaon to Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, Okhla in south Delhi. This enabled a convoy of traffic police and ambulance to cover the distance in 29 minutes flat and transport a heart for transplantation into a 16-year-old boy. The urgency was because the human heart has to be transplanted within four hours of retrieval.

The donor was a 30-year-old IT professional who was declared brain dead around 8.48 am on 4th January 2015 at FMRI. According to Dr Avnish Seth, director of Fortis Organ Retrieval and Transplant (FORT), the young man had suffered a stroke on30th December 2014 that led to his brain death. His parents, who were called from Hyderabad, consented to donating his organs – kidneys, liver, heart and corneas.

Doctors retrieved the heart, as well as other organs for donation, at 3.30 pm and the heart was loaded into an ambulance. “We had conducted a dry run with FMRI last August. As soon as the request for transportation of the organ was received, we contacted our counterparts in Delhi and first decided on the shortest possible route. A pilot gypsy and bike-borne personnel were deployed to clear the route for the ambulance,” said Navdeep Singh Virk, the Gurgaon police commissioner. “All traffic signals were put on manual mode and the ambulance was allowed to run signal-free,” said Muktesh Chander, Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Delhi.

On the night of 17th February 2015, the Delhi Traffic Police created yet another 25 km ‘green corridor’ to facilitate donation from the oldest deceased donor at AIIMS Trauma Centre. The donor was a 77-year-old man, Vir Bhan Choudhury, a retired Delhi government school teacher. The police cleared traffic and helped in the transportation of the body from Orchid hospital in Janakpuri to the AIIMS Trauma Centre in just about 20 minutes. “The representatives from Dadhichi Deh Daan Samiti contacted us and convinced us for organ donation,” said Prem Makkar, son-in-law of the donor. “The body was taken to the operation theatre at 9:30 am on 18th February for retrieval of organs. The body was handed over to the family at 1:30 pm,” said Rajeev Maikhuri, organ transplant coordinator, Organ Retrieval Banking Organisation, AIIMS. This was the fifth deceased donation at AIIMS this year. The liver was transplanted to a 30-year-old man at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Delhi. The kidneys were transplanted to 48-year-old and 50-year-old male patients at AIIMS. The corneas were also retrieved.


To cite : Shroff S, Navin S. ‘Green corridors’ in Delhi and Gurgaon enable lifesaving transplants. Indian Transplant Newsletter.Vol. 14 Issue No.: 43 (Nov 2014–Feb 2015).
Available at:
https://www.itnnews.co.in/indian-transplant-newsletter/issue43/Green-corridors-in-Delhi-and-Gurgaon-enable-lifesaving-transplants-371.htm

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