Visakhapatnam :
A kidney harvested from a brain dead patient in Guntur travelled 400 km by road to the Port City recently to give a fresh lease of life to a 51-year-old man suffering from chronic kidney disease in Visakhapatnam, thanks to the police department playing the good Samaritan.
In a rare case of perfect coordination, the kidney, which was harvested from the accident victim at 2 am on January 31, was carried by the paramedical team in an ambulance that was escorted by the traffic police and police department personnel on its road journey from Guntur to Vizag via Vijayawada.
“The police department in all the three cities provided 10 patrol cars at strategic points to escort the ambulance that was carrying the kidney from Guntur. Thanks to this support, the ambulance could travel 400 km without any delays on the highway and the kidney reached our hospital on time at 8 am, where the 51-year-old patient was already awaiting the organ in the operation theatre,” said Dr P Sriram Naveen, consultant nephrologist at Manipal Hospitals, Visakhapatnam, who headed the operation along with his team.
“The kidney transplant was done successfully and the condition of the patient monitored the next few days. He is now doing fine,” Dr Naveen added.
On January 30, 2015, at 6 pm, the 54-year-old road accident patient was declared ‘brain dead’ at a private hospital in Guntur. After his family members decided to donate his organs, Jeevandan Organisation, which manages the cadaver transplantation scheme, allotted a kidney to Manipal Hospitals, Visakhapatnam, from where a team of skilled paramedics was sent to the Guntur Hospital.
Attributing the success of the surgery largely to the support of the police department, G Sukesh Reddy, unit head at Manipal Hospitals, Visakhapatnam said the kidney was able to travel 400 km in just six hours only because of the police personnel in the three cities of Guntur, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam. “Time is of essence in organ transplants, which should be done within 24 hours of retrieval of the organ, provided it is preserved appropriately,” he added.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Visakhapatnam / TNN / February 05th, 2015
