In what is perhaps the first of its kind, a cadaver liver travelled by road from Chennai to Coimbatore and was transplanted almost 27 hours after it was harvested. On Sunday 28th October 2018 when a 56-year-old trauma patient’s family came forward to donate his liver, a few centres in Chennai rejected the organ because of its sub-optimal quality, but a patient in Coimbatore agreed to take it. Dr. S. Swaminathan, liver transplant surgeon at PSG Hospitals, Coimbatore, said he held discussions with his patient, a 65-year-old woman, who had suffered liver cirrhosis. The organ, which was harvested at 11 a.m. on Sunday at Vijaya Hospital and connected to the perfusion machine (OrganOx) in the evening, left Chennai at 9.30 p.m. and reached Coimbatore’s PSG Hospitals at 9 a.m. on Monday. By 2.15 p.m, the liver got reperfused in the recipient.

The machine was transported by ambulance. “It is a logistical nightmare, but when the liver is on the machine we can preserve it for a longer time,” Dr. Swaminathan added. Subith Kumar, Chief Executive Officer of Duraent Life sciences, which transported the OrganOx Metra machine and the liver, said there were several firsts to this transplant. After harvesting the liver, it was transported in ice to RPS Hospital in Kolathur for cannulation. From there, it was transported by ambulance to Coimbatore about 500 km away. The vehicle made four stops in 10 hours to evaluate the various parameters of liver function. “The liver was on the machine for more than 17 hours, a record for India,” he said.