Hyderabad Metro Turns Lifeline, Transports Heart for Transplant

The organ harvested from a man found to be brain dead, was transported from Nagole metro station to Jubilee Hills.

In a novel initiative, an exclusive passenger train of the Hyderabad Metro helped rush a heart for a transplant from Kamineni Hospital in LB Nagar to Apollo Hospitals in Jubilee Hills. The organ, which was harvested from a 45-year-old man found to be brain dead, was transported from Nagole metro station to Jubilee Hills check post Metro station.

Usually, by road, the over 20-km distance between the two hospitals takes more than an hour, owing to traffic. Therefore, the special train was arranged at Nagole, which picked up the heart at around 3:30 pm on Tuesday, 2 February, and paced through the entire stretch of 21 kilometres, crossing 16 stations between Nagole and Jubilee Hills.

It took less than 30 minutes for the train to reach Jubilee Hills, as the train travelled at an average speed of 40 km/hour. All stations were kept on guard and were informed regarding the movement of this special train. An ambulance was kept ready at Jubilee Hills to take the heart and rush to the hospital.

In an official release, Apollo Hospital stated that Dr AGK Gokhale and his team accompanied the organ.

“This was a God-send opportunity for us to mobilise our resources towards saving a precious life. I must thank Kamineni and Apollo Hospitals for reaching out to us with this benevolent request. We have taken all safety measures in place along with creating a green corridor to mobilise a special non-stop train from Nagole to Jubilee hills, seamlessly facilitating the transportation of the heart in a quest to save a life,” said KVB Reddy, the Managing Director and CEO, of L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited.

Watch visuals of the heart being transported by train:

In probably a first, doctors used the #Hyderabad Metro to transport a heart from one hospital to another in the city. A passenger-free train was arranged for the same. A distance of 21 kms was covered in less than 30 mins. pic.twitter.com/8p9hobtCCJ

— Paul Oommen (@Paul_Oommen) February 2, 2021

While green corridors are nothing new in principal, this is the first time that the metro railway has been used for this purpose. For the past few years, various traffic police divisions in cities have been ensuring that the ambulance carrying the cadaver organ gets a stoppage free path to the destination hospital.

Recently in October 2020, the Hyderabad Traffic police had readied a green corridor between Global Hospital, Lakidikapool to KIMS Hospital, Secunderabad. The entire stretch of 5.7km could be covered in just 5 minutes due to this. Often, for patients in critical conditions needing such cadaver organs, time is of prime importance as even a few minutes delay can be a matter of life and death.

(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)