Kochi: Kerala became the first state in the country to conduct a heart transplant poor 22-year-old woman from Nepal in a district level government hospital on Monday, Manorama news reported.
The woman with cardiac sarcoidosis had come to Kerala after coming to know about health facilities available for people with poor financial condition.
The patient’s mother and sister had died due to Cardiac sarcoidosis which is a rare hereditary heart condition.
The woman and her younger brother were living in a shelter run free by a good samaritan from Kerala.
The treatment was offered after obtaining special permission from the High Court of Kerala as the Kerala State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation gives priority to Indian citizens on its waiting list.
The donor was S Shibu who suffered brain death following a road accident on December 14.His family consented to the donation of seven organs. One kidney was transplanted at Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College Hospital, another at Travancore Medical College in Kollam, the liver at KIMS Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, and both corneas at the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology. Shibu’s skin was also donated to the skin bank at Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College Hospital.
The Home Department arranged a helicopter to transport the heart to Ernakulam. The police ensured road clearance along routes leading to the hospitals where the transplant procedures were carried out.
Photo: Facebook
